The Goddess of Thieves and The Master of Thieves
by Azure Wolf98
Summary: Meet Kinkiku Kiada a transfer student at Shujin Academy. She isn't a female Akira so don't expect it. She's just a normal girl, right? Wrong! She's a bad ass Persona-user and you'd better hope she doesn't steal your heart!
1. My First Day

**Welcome to my Persona 5 Fanfic! To start this off I want to say thank you for reading and enjoy! My OC is named Kinkiku Kaida which has the meanings Kin=Golden, Kiku=Chrysanthemum, Kaida=Little Dragon, so her name literally means Golden Crysanthemum and Little Dragon. When you think about it you'll understand how it's ironic, her name's meaning is a golden flower and a little dragon(many western dragons are known for having an affinity for collecting treasure), then the fact that she's a part of the Phantom Thieves. You can see where I'm going with this right? Good then here's The Goddes of Thieves(My Character's Persona) and The Master of Thieves(P5 Main Character's Persona)...**

"My first day"

It's hard to fit in when you're just so different from everyone else. People shun you for the stupidest things; wearing glasses, having strange hair colors, eye colors, skin colors. No one stops to think about how those people feel when they're shunned left to be a social outcast. I was one of those people shunned, ignored, laughed at... But I just let it be, ignoring them, letting them feel like they won when it was the other way around. I didn't care, say what you want about me I'll just call you an idiot and move on. I've always been like this and thought I always would be in the future, I never expected to change... But I did thanks to a group of people I would grow to call my friends. My name's Kinkiku Kaida and here's the story of the Phantom thieves.

It all started the first day of my first year at Shujin Academy, I had to transfer schools because my parents were changing jobs and they wanted me to go to the high school my mother went to. I'm a second-year now, what I didn't know was I wasn't the only one transferring that day but first off let's start at the beginning before we get to that.

4/11

"Kinkiku! It's time for you to get going!" My mom called from downstairs. It was already the later part of the day, I had to finished unpacking my things from the move so I was going to school later that everyone else would.

"I'll be down in a minute" I called back as I finished styling my hair into its usual ponytail, my bangs pulled over to cover my left eye, "There done" I said finally getting my long red hair up, even pulled up it still reached the middle of my back. I rushed down the stairs school bag in hand, said bye to my mom and left with my dad to school(he was driving me for my first day only).

"Here ya are Kin, Shujin Academy be good, have fun!" My dad told me as he left. I nodded before I walked away towards the school doors, finding my way to the staff room where my teacher would be waiting to take me to my class. What I didn't expect was for there to be another student already there as well...

"How can you get lost for this long? It's almost lunchtime. Well, it's probably true your not used to the area yet...but your still way too late. Will you pull yourself together? You were given fair warning yesterday.", A female voice called from inside the room, "More importantly... I heard you were caught along with that Sakamoto-Kun?"

"I didn't have a choice." A young male voice answered the female one, who sighed at his words.

"Don't get involved with him, ok? He's nothing but trouble. He wasn't like that when he was divoting his time to track and field though..." The female voice warned then sounded disappointed. I chose to go inside then, looking around I saw a female teacher and a male student talking at the teacher's desk. "Hm? Oh you must be Kinkiku Kaida!" The teacher called over to me when she noticed me standing there.

"Yes and you're Ms. Kawakami?" I asked her, she nodded and I bowed my head in greeting.

"Right my name's Sadayo Kawakami. Oh! This is Akira Kurusu he's also a transfer student who's starting today, you'll both be in my class as well." The teacher introduced the boy to me I nodded my head in recognition but said nothing with a blank expression. "...Anyway. Break's almost over. Classes will end after fifth period because of the subway accident. I'll have you introduce yourselves when class resumes. Follow me." She lead us to the classroom but stopped to tell Kurusu-San something before hand. And I heard some girls talk about a guy from some rumors not that I knew who or what they were talking about, not like I cared either.

"Settle down...Well I'd like to introduce some transfer students: Akira Kurusu and Kinkiku Kaida. Today, we...had Kurusu-Kun attend from the afternoon on since he wasn't feeling well. And Kaida-Chan was busy unpacking most of the day but didn't want to skip school completely if she didn't have to. All right, please say something to the class." Kawakami-San told us both, Kurusu-San started first then I went next.

"Nice to meet you." He said with a short bow.

"I hope we get along." I said with an even shorted bow, keeping a straight face the entire time.

"He seems quiet...but I bet when he loses it..." A female student whispered to her friend next to her.

"The other one doesn't seem too friendly does she?" Another student said to another student.

"...Uhh, so... Your seats will be..Hmm... Kurusu-Kun the seat over there by the window, Kaida-Chan the one behind if you would. Sorry but can the people nearby share your text books with them for today?" Kawakami-San told the class.

"This sucks..." A student near there said to another. We both walked towards our respective seats and sat down and our day began. Class passed us by and ended. I gathered my things and headed out the door last avoiding people's whispers and stares as much as possible for now. Outside the room Kurusu-San and a blond boy stood near the door Kawakami-San walked away after talking to them along with the blond before hand. I walked out of the classroom and passed Kurusu-Kun when my phone went off, I stopped to check it to find a strange app with the icon displaying some weird eye.

"What the hell is this?" I questioned out loud I didn't download this so where'd it come from? Just then a teacher and the principal walked up the stairs.

"Why did you allow a student like him to transfer here? He's already started associating with Sakamoto. A student with a criminal record, and the culprit of an assault case. At this rate, it'd be pointless how much I contribute to this school." The teacher with the stopwatch around his neck told the principal, sure of himself much? Acting like some kind of king.

"Now, don't be like that... This school counts on you, Kamoshida-Kun, your are our star. Still, a steady build-up is necessary behind such brilliance as well." The principal replied to the teacher.

"Your troubles never seem to end, do they, Principal Kobayakawa? All right, I understand. I'll continue to do my best to answer your expectations of me." They both went their seperate ways, I looked over at Kurusu-Kun who was watching them leave and made up my mind to talk to him.

"Kinkiku Kaida..." I told him as I held my hand out to greet him he blinked in surprise as if he didn't expecting that, especially with such a straight face.

"Akira Kurusu you can just call me Akira though, no need to be formal with me, nice to meet you Kaida-San" he replied as he took my hand.

"Then no formality with my name either, just Kin or Kiku is fine I don't like being called Kaida-San by anyone... So you've got a criminal record, huh?" I told him studying him. He nodded at me unsure why I was talking to him with this knowledge, "Don't seem like much of a criminal to me... We're kinda similar in the reputations can be deceiving aspect" I told him gracing him with a smile, I usually didn't care about people enough to smile but he seemed to need a friend as much as I did so why not give it a shot, right?

"Why do you say that?" Akira asked me curiously.

"I'm a lot more friendly than I seem... This doesn't help either though" I pulled my bangs away to show him my left eye, my right eye was a pale blue of a foreigner while the left was a brilliant gold. He was taken aback by my eye color and stared silently as I let my bangs back down.

"Wow!" Was all he said in reply to my eye color.

"Well since we're both transfer students and outcasts what do ya say we be friends?" I asked him calmly, he took a minute to recover from the shock.

"Sure, it'll be nice. Oh! Sakamoto wanted me to meet him on the roof so..." He looked at me apologetically.

"'K see you tomorrow Akira!" I said waving then heading out towards home.

"Tommorow it is!" He said waving in return as I left, with a smile on both our faces. When I was out of the building I tried to delete the app that appered on my phone, a simple rectangle with a black case with silver and red stars on it.

 **And so the first day ends! Let me know what you all think of it, okay? I'll try to make it smooth in the transitions between the days and story events but don't hate me if I mess up a bit, okay? I'm not perfect. See you next time.**

 **Shika Kizuka**

 **P.S. Two important things to know about: When Akira and Kiku bow to the class it's a cultural thing. The deeper you bow the more you respect a person, Akira shows the class basic respect by giving them an ordinarily short bow while Kiku simply leans forward slightly showing that she doesn't have any respect for her classmates, which is why they don't find her friendly. In reality Kiku simply only shows respect to those who have earned it and as she has only just meet her class she feels no need to show respect. Second thing you need to take note of is when Akira and Kiku speak they tell each other to use their first names, for those not used to japanese customs this isn't anything worth noting but in japanese culture to use someone's first name casualy without their permission is insulting, compaired to it being used to show familiarity or in Akira and Kiku's case a newly formed bond of friendship in a place where they are both outcasts.**


	2. My Second Day

**Here's Chapter 2!**

"My second day and the awakening"

4/12

'It's raining today!' I noted as I walked to the station. As I did I saw a familiar head of black hair and the glint of glasses, "Akira!" I called out to the black haired boy with his umbrella over his head.

"Kinkiku! Morning!" He replied to me.

"I said you could call me Kin or Kiku, my mom's the only one who calls me Kinkiku, everyone else usually calls me Kin" I said in a scolding manner to him, this was the first time someone had talked to me normally even after seeing my gold eye.

"I'll call you Kiku then, I like it..." He replied with a smile. I smiled back at him happily.

"Kiku it is then, so you live around here?" I asked him as I noted we had run into each other here in the backstreet.

"Yeah, something like that." He replied, we talked as we boarded the train for Shibuya then transferred to the train that'd take us to school in Aoyama. We even went to class together, Mr. Ushimaru was our teacher for the day, he called Akira out once and Akira got it right, the other students were impressed a little. I noticed he had a habit of rubbing the back of his neck when he was pleased with himself or when he was flustered.

After school...

"Akira! Wanna walk home together since we're heading the same way?" I asked him at the end of class.

"Sure, I don't see why not..." He replied to me we gathered our things and left the classroom where we saw that teacher, Kamoshida, again this time he was talking to the blond girl in our class, the one who sat in frount of Akira. The man was a pushy guy, a pervert no doubt about it. And he was bad mouthing Akira again, I really didn't like this guy at all. Just as we were leaving the blond guy from yesterday, I remembered his last name was Sakamoto, called out to Akira.

"Yo." He looked like he needed to talk badly. I wonder what he wants.

"What's up?" Akira asked him in reply.

"Could we talk a sec..." He looked at me as if I was in the way.

"You want me to leave, right?" I said with an unreadable expression as usual.

"Sorry it's...private." He told me, he was sorry but I knew it wasn't so much private as he thought I wouldn't belive him.

"My guess is it has something to do with why the two of you were late yesterday, right... You think I wouldn't believe you so you don't want to tell me not that I blame you for that but you'd be suprised at what I'd belive" I said with no expression on my face, blond boy just stared at me with disbelief while Akira looked impressed.

"How did you..." He started but I cut him off.

"Observation is a skill of mine after years of sitting in the back of classrooms. Kinkiku Kaida, nice to meet you! You can call me Kin." I told him holding my hand out for him to shake, he did.

"Ryuji Sakamoto..." He said unsure of how to react.

"You can tell me without worry about what your "private" matter is I'll keep my mouth shut" I assured him with a smile. He blinked at the smile so unusual on my face as it was.

"Well... Anyways I tried tellin' myself it was all just a dream...but I couldn't do it. I can't act like nothing happened. It's all connected to that Bastard Kamoshida, after all. I wanna find out what's up with that place, no matter what." He told Akira, I didn't get it except there was something going on and it involved that pervy teacher, "And y'know, you're the only person I can rely on for this stuff. So, you in?" He asked Akira, Akira agreed and told me we'd have to reschedule our walk home some other time.

"Nope I'm coming with you." I told him in response.

"Huh?" Sakamoto-San looked like he didn't get what I was saying to them, "There's no way your coming with us what we're about to do isn't something for girls" he told me, like he could tell me what to do.

"Too bad this girl can probably fight better than you" I countered to him, they were doing something and I was curious and when I got curious you couldn't stop me from solving the mystery I was after.

"You might as well let her come if we find the way back we could send her back here so she's not in danger" Akira told Sakamoto-San, I smiled at getting my way and we set off to find this _'castle'_ of theirs. Retracing their steps from yesterday over and over until we kept coming back to the school. Then as we talked about where it could be Sakamoto-San suddenly had an apifany **(I don't know if that's spelled right but you get the picture)** of sorts.

"Hey, that reminds me-didn't you have a navigation app thingy on, back then?" He asked Akira.

"Navigation app?" Akira responded.

"I don't know if it was or not, but I heard stuff that sounded like one comin' from your phone. Y'know didn't it say stuff like "returned to the real world" or something like that? Let me see your phone for a bit." He took Akira's phone and found the same weird app that appeared on my phone yesterday, Akira couldn't delete it much like mine(it reappeared this morning). Sakamoto-San tapped on it and turned on, he touched the search bar that had the keywords:"Kamoshida", "Shujin Academy", "Pervert", and "Castle". Then the world around us seemed to shift and the next thing we knew we were standing in frount of a large castle, Akira was also now dressed in a strange outfit that he hadn't been wearing before. Sakamoto-San and I were both suprised, but he didn't look half-bad in it. Then a weird cat creature came out of nowhere calling out to us.

"Stop making a commotion." The cat? told Sakamoto-San angrily.

"What is that thing?!" I said in surprise.

"I am Morgana, a please to meet you!" It told me politely, then Sakamoto-San yelled with it back and forth until they made an agreement? to show us where the screams were coming from. "But first may I ask the lady's name?" Morgana asked me.

"Kinkiku but you can call me Kin" I replied to it's question.

"Lady Kin then! Follow me" it said.

"Hold it, Kin ain't goin' she's going back to our world" Sakamoto-San said determendly. Forcing me towards the entrance sending me back to the real world, they left with Morgana to traverse the castle and I just decided to go back in using the app on my own phone. Following after them I had this feeling that I needed to follow like someone was telling me to. The sights I saw were horrifying to say the least...and then... I got cought and taken before the Pervy teacher's Shadow.

"Look what we have here... Another intruder...your sentence is death" the 'king' told me.

'So this is how I die?' I asked myself in my thoughts but then I felt like my head was about to split and I started to scream. Not far away the others heard the scream and came running where they saw me kneeling on the floor held by the guards screaming with tears in my eyes. Then I heard it, a voice.

"What...? Are you just going to die then?" The female voice asked me, "Will you let another rule your fate? I thought only you could rule it..." It told me, that's right...my fate is mine...

"No...I...I won't let anyone...take my freedom...physical pain...emotional pain...these are _nothing_...I am who I am...NOONE can change that..." I told the voice my answer to her questions.

"Good...Then come let us show these mortals our power...

I am thou, thou art I...

Let the power of the underworld fuel your resolve, call my name and let these fools burn with the flames of hell!

I am the goddess of Thieves,"Laverna"!" The voice shouted in my head I felt power course through me and as if someone was controlling me my hand came up to grip the edges of a mask on my face. Following the urges I pulled at the mask ripping it off I became surrounded by a blue flame and behind me appering out of the flame was _'Laverna'_ , a beautiful woman with pale white skin, long black hair with her left eye partially obscured, and a night-sky blue eye on the right with a blood red eye on the left. Her clothes are a black low cut robe **(The kind the gods were depicted wearing in the times)** and a thin black veil that hung over her face, pinned in place by two black star shaped hair ornaments.

"Kill her!" The King yelled to his guards but Laverna killed them before they could ever reach me.

"I am your rebel's soul, the one who resides within you! Take my power as it is your own..." She told me softly within my head.

"Laverna...Send them to the flames of hell!" I ordered.

"As you wish..." She replied killing more guards that came our way. But even with her power the others had gotten surrounded with me and there wasn't anything we could do with only three of us fighting. Kamoshida brought up Sakamoto-San's past on the track team and that's when it happened, he awakened to his own Persona. He joined us in our fight with his Persona: Captain Kidd. The pervy king even brought out a cognitive version of the blond girl in our class it was revolting to watch. But we had to run before we got surrounded. Leaving the castle behind, Morgan's had to explain why our clothes had changed, Sakamoto-San looked like a thug, and me? Well...My red hair is pinned behind me in a single ponytail, like normal, by a star hair ornament much like Laverna's. I also wore a thin diadem **(look it up if you don't know what it is)** of silver with a single onyx at the center of my forehead. I wore a black caged skirt **(a skirt puffed out using a cage like metal frame)** that went down to my knees with a long sleeved off the shoulder blouse with silver glitter swirls that sparkled as I moved. I wore a pair of red and black striped tights under my skirt with a pair of knee-high black boots with chains dangling off the tops, they wrattled as I moved to look at myself. There was also a cloak pinned with a star shaped clasp holding it shut at the top. Lastly underneath was a heart-shaped black lace choker **(She has a reaper sort of feel to her)**. After much yelling back and forth between Sakamoto-San and Morgana, we(meaning Sakamoto-San, Akira, and myself) returned to the real world to do what we could about Kamoshida in the real world. We ended up grabbing something to eat while Akira told us about the _'crime'_ he commited. Sakamoto-San was pissed and I looked on unhappily. I ended up leaving before them because I needed to get home and finish up with some unpacking.

 **The end of the second day and the second chapter. First off here's some info on Laverna; In Roman mythology, Laverna was a goddess of thieves, cheats and the underworld. She was propitiated(Propitiation, also called expiation, is the act of appeasing or making well-disposed a deity, thus incurring divine favor or avoiding divine retribution) by libations poured with the left hand. The poet Horace and the playwright Plautus call her a goddess of thieves. In Rome, her sanctuary was near the Porta Lavernalis. So yes she does exist in mythology but note that my discription of her looks is comletely made up. Also Kinkiku's weapon of choice is a scythe, more on what it looks like later, and two twin hand guns. Hope you like the story!**

 **Shika Kizuka**


	3. The Third Day

**Here's Chapter 3!**

"The third day"

4/13

"Kinkiku it's time to get ready for school!" My mother called as I woke from my sleep, still slightly tired from yesterday. I got ready for school donning my school uniform(with red tights underneath), my black knee-high boots(the only saving grace of japanese unifoms, they still let you choose your shoes), and usual black ponytail ribbon(a ribbon with a silver star ornament in the center of the bow). I walked towards the train station, running into Akira again in front of the café, Leblanc, that he lived above. We join each other in conversation as we took the trains to school. I was a little clumsy at speaking but Akira didn't mind one bit. As we neared the school building we heard two boy students talking about Kamoshida, just hearing his name pissed me off to no end. We needed to show these idiots what that bastard was really like then we'll see how much they praise him.

The volleyball meet...

To put it simply it was...kinda scary, Kamoshida spiked the ball in to the face of one of the students in my class, though I didn't know his name. Akira, Sakamoto-San, and I sat off on the sidelines watching it happen. After that it was our chance to do some investigating... we split up, Akira and Sakamoto-San went to find the guys who's faces Sakamoto-San had memorised and I went to see what I could find from the girls around the school listening in for anything about Kamoshida. I happened by the blond girl, from yesterday, and her friend talking.

"Everyone's saying a lot of bad stuff about the transfer student in your class, Ann..." The girl with the ponytail told her blond friend.

"I know. I hate rumors already, but they're just getting more complex as time goes on." The blond replied.

"I wonder if he's all right... I hope he's not letting it get to him too much." The girl said sadly.

"That'd just like you, Shiho. Always worrying about other people before your self. Kinda like when you were there for me... But I guess the same goes for the other one too, they don't even know her but they act like she killed someone just 'cause she hangs with him. It's not like she has any friends here so why give her the grief just 'cause she wasn't scared to go talk to someone in the same boat as her." Takamaki-San(At least I think that was her family name, if I remember correctly) said, I then walked away before they noticed me ease dropping on them. We meet back up to discuss what we had found, with some words from Takamaki-San, but... We didn't really find anything, except that Kamoshida was giving the Volleyball team _'Special coaching'_ of some kind. And the name Mishima came up too. Sakamoto-San and Akira ran off to talk to him but I opted for changing back into my normal uniform for now, if only I hasn't run into Kamoshida earlier when I was listening to some of the girls in the gym talk, the guy gave me serious goosebumps when he talked to me. I wanted to leave the school before he found me again, I then meet up with Akira and we went back to Yogen-Jaya.

"See you tomorrow, Akira!" I said as I headed off towards the street I lived on.

"See ya!" He called back watching me run off with a smile on his face. I ran home, unlocked the door, and went inside to see if my parents were home. I heard the sound and smelled the smell of something cooking, no doubt my mom's handywork.

"I'm home!" I called out as I took my shoes off at the space between the door and the entrance to the living room.

"Kinkiku! Welcome home!" My mother called out from the kitchen area as she continued to work on making dinner.

"Thanks mom!" I told her as I entered the kitchen. The space still new to me.

"How was your day?" She asked as she worked on another of her new creations, she loved making new things when she got the chance to, and me and dad were usually the guinea pigs.

"As good as it could be at a new school where I know no one" I said in replied with a shrug.

"Kinkiku...are you unhappy we moved?" My mom asked me taking me by surprise.

"...No I'm glad... I made some friends for once..." I told her in response to her question.

"Friends? Really? That's good I thought you might be a loner forever, it's nice to know there are people who don't mind your way of talking and such" my mother said as the door to the house opened and my father walked in.

"Welcome back!" I called to him from the entryway to the kitchen with a smile.

"!!! You seem in a good mood. What's the rare occasions?" He asked me with a happy smile of his own.

"Kinkiku made some friends at her school." My mother answered him for me as I helped set the table.

"Oh! They must be an good person then." He said with a smile as I raised an eyebrow at him in silent questioning.

"Would you still say that if I told you that one of them had a criminal record? Even if he doesn't deserve it in my opinion." I asked him with curiosity.

"Kin, you wouldn't befriend someone who was truly a bad person. If this boy does have a record I have no doubt there's a reason for what he did to get in that kind of situation." My father said calmly, "any person who makes you smile at all is a good person in my book, I know you Kin and I know you can protect yourself if you need to so I won't try to tell you who or who not to befriend... But, if ever there's one who takes it further that friends know that I will be giving him the talk." He told me with a straight face and I laughed.

"I'll make sure to remember that, any guy afraid of my dad wouldn't stand a chance in a relationship with me!" We all laughed as we had dinner together then I went to me room and did my homework before I went to bed. As I fell into sleep I realized I had never asked Akira or Sakamoto-San for their contact info, I'd just have to do that tomorrow when I saw them, until then sleep was calling for me.

 **And here you are! Ain't Kinkiku's parents the greatest! I kinda modeled them after my own parents a bit cause I don't have much else to use as reference material, my parents unlike Kinkiku's are however divorced, though that doesn't change much about how much they love me or my little sis(I know you will read this eventualy little sister I promise to refrain from calling you "the" nickname I like to use, as I would rather not die XP). And the part about a boyfriend who can't be scared of her dad, I also used that from a personal experiance when my dad talked about when I got a boyfriend and I told him that if they were afraid of him then they'd have a hell of a hard time dealing with me everyday, my dad has a gun with the license to go with it*evil grin*... Yes I know I'm crazy so don't bother telling me. See you next chapter!**

 **Shika Kizuka**


	4. The Fourth Day

**Here are some things you should know for this story just in case you can't figure it out or can't remember in the future:**

"Title"

Date, Place, or Time occasionaly

"Talk"

'Thought'

Name:'Text'

Name:"Call"

 _'When I want something to have emphesise'_

 _When someone's being sarcastic_

 **(When I want to tell you something I think can't wait for the Author's note)**

 **And now here's Chapter 4!**

"The fourth day"

4/14

I went through the usual routine in the morning, got ready for school, met up with Akira, talked to him on our way to school, listened to a pair of girls talk about how cool Kamoshida was, and a rumor about the PE faculty office. We eventually made it to our class, during which Akira got a message from Sakamoto-San, I didn't get one because I still didn't have their contact info at the moment. After school Akira told me about what it was about and I wondered if we couldn't do what he originally was planning, I got the feeling that Takamaki-San might be more willing to help than the boys realized. I thought about going to talk to her. It'd be less obvious than Akira or Sakamoto-San trying to if I could find her maybe I could get her to talk about something... I got the feeling she wasn't really with Kamoshida, at least not by her own will. After school Akira and I meet up with Sakamoto-San to talk.

"Damnit. What the hell..." Sakamoto-San yelled angrily.

"Calm down you'll draw attention where it isn't wanted" I calmly told him, we needed to keep a lower profile than the shouting blond would allow.

"This really ain't goin' our way..." He said sounding slightly tired, then punched the drink machine beside him. "All of 'em keep sayin' the same shot Mishima was talkin' about...! Kamoshida had to have told 'em something! At this rate... It looks like we'll have to go to him directly..."

"I doubt he'd let something slip" I shook my head at the idea.

"I know... But seriously, isn't there something we can do?" He asked depressingly.

"..." I stayed silent as I thought, what could we do.

"No way I'm gonna give in like this! Can you guy's think of anything?" He asked pleadingly.

"Let's punish the king." Akira said completely straight faced.

"The king...?" Sakamoto-San asked him confused.

"You mean the other world's Kamoshida, right?" I asked him, getting where he was going with this. Akira nodded and then we heard a voice that sounded very familiar.

"I finally found you..." It said in an excited tone,"Don't think you can get away with not paying me back for helping you."

"That voice... Is that you Morgana!?" Sakamoto-San called out suprised at the black cat.

"How dare you, up and leave me the other day!" Morgana said angrily, I walked over to it and picked it up staring it in the face, "Um...Lady Kin?"

"..." I had a straight face on until, "Your soooooooo cute!" I yelled hugging him tightly, he struggled as I practically squish him.

"Um..." Sakamoto-San stared at me confused as I squeeze Morgana tightly. I had a thing for cute animals, cats being second only to dogs on my cute meter. We had a long conversation about Morgan's not being a cat and about the Shadow Kamoshida. I didn't want to kill him but I had a feeling it was our only option he seemed to be doing things I didn't even want to think about. I eventually got to ask for the others' info, Ryuji told me to just call him by his first name, and then I headed towards home by myself. But at the station in Shibuya I ran into Ann who was yelling at someone on the phone about 'not feeling up to it'. She seemed angry and upset at what they said back and she got even angrier when she saw I had heard her. She ran off, but I saw this as my chance plus even though she didn't want anyone talking to her I knew she needed someone to talk to about what was wrong. I ran after her down the stairs to one of the stations catching up.

"Takamaki-San!" I called out as I found her again.

"Why are you following me?" She dimanded.

"Because you need to talk to someone and I'm stubborn enough to make you talk if I have to. Keeping it in won't help, Takamaki-San, it only makes it worse... Trust me I know..." I replied looking down at the floor for that last part, "Let's go somewhere else" we walked to the big bang burger and got glasses of water **(I still don't know why you'd order a glass of water, I think it's water at least, or how you _could_ order a glass of water at a fast food place but eh Japanese people have their culture we have ours)**.

"Why are you doing this,Kaida-San? You don't need to worry about me, you don't even know me." I laughed at her question which made her look at me strangely.

"First off call me Kin, I hate people calling me Kaida-San. Secondly because I know how it feels to feel helpless." I told her pulling back my bangs to show her my gold eye, "I've known that feeling a lot with this," I motioned to my eye, "I was picked on a lot by the kids at my school, they called me a demon's child. The adults weren't much better either, talking about how I might be possessed or something. We lived in a pretty superstitious neighborhood at the time. I couldn't stop the kids from doing things to hurt me, the adults around us never tried to. I thought I'd always just get hurt either way, until my parents found out I was being physically abused as _well_ as mentally. We moved pretty quick after that, but I started hiding my eye after that, I also stopped trying to make friends. After all if you don't have any you can't get hurt right... Not..." I told her all with a sad smile. She looked down at her water in thought.

"The one on the other end was Kamoshida... He, he just won't leave me alone he said that if I didn't do what he wanted he'd take Shiho of the team" she said as she went from a shaky voice to crying, "why am I even telling you this, I don't even know you..."

"Sometimes it's because you don't know someone that it's easier..." I told her with a smile. "Kamoshida will pay...for everything he's done...I know it..." I replied to her, she stood up a little later needing to leave.

"Thank...for listening...Kin." she told me then left. I texted Akira telling him I was going through with what Morgana had planned.

Kiku:'I'm going to help Morgana steal Kamoshia's treasure'

Akira:'Why the sudden decision?'

Kiku:'I talked with Takamaki-San... He can't be left to keep hurting people like he has been... I won't let him do this anymore, I can't...'

Akira:'I know... I can't let it go either I was going to let you and Ryuji decide what you guys wanted to do before I told you my decision but I'll tell you now... I'm going in too'

Kiku:'Then we'll be doing it together, Kamoshida will pay I don't want to kill him though...'

Akira:'I don't want to either'

Kiku:'I wonder if there's a way to make him confess but not die afterwards?'

Akira:'I don't know'

Kiku:'We just have to hope there's a way, well see you tomorrow Akira'

Akira:'See ya tomorrow'

I walked off the train in Yongen-Jaya and headed home, did my homework, showered, and went to sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a long day to say the least.

 **And that's the chapter...if you have any questions, comments, or concerns please comment or PM me so I can answer them as quickly as possible. Thank you for reading.**

 **Shika Kizuka**


	5. Code Names

**Before you go on to read the story I want to bring something to everyone's attention. Persona fans will know of Persona 3 Portable, correct? Well yesterday someone contacted me through PM to tell me about how for my other Persona fanfic, the one for Persona Q, that my female protagonist was not like she "should" have been. Because my character wasn't the bubbly, happy girl that most people portray her as. Now, my character is for one a character of a fictional world where the main characters are in simple terms an avatar for which you can place yourself in the game. These characters do not have a set personality, and there for should not be stereo-typed just because the picture you see in the game is alway seemingly smiling. I just want to ask my readers to keep an open mind for this, if you prefer the bubbly character that is fine, but please remember that everyone may have an opinion on how said character should act and if the writer of a fanfiction, should so choose, they may portray any character how they wish or they may simply be portraying that character the best they can. Thank you for your time you may now either read on or dislike me and stop reading my storys either way I ask that you do not spam me with complaints on the way my characters act. They are acting how I want them to and that is how I will continue to write whether you like it or not. These storys are for people who share a similar opinion or want something different from the norm. Here's Chapter 5 enjoy.**

"Code names"

4/15

I never could have imagined what would happen this day. Never could I have thought that someone from a school I went to could do something like that. It started as the last few had waking up, getting ready for school, meeting up with Akira, taking the train to school, and once again listening as people gossip back and forth. We arrived at school and went to class with Mr. Ushimaru again. Then Morgana showed up in Akira's desk and Mr. Ushimaru heard the cat noises and told the unseen cat to quiet down... Then Ryuji started to text us.

Ryuji:'It's no use... I can't think of any other way...'

Kiku:'We're in class you moron!'

Akira:'You aren't skipping are you?'

Ryuji:'I can't deal with that shit right now. I mean, what're we gonna do about Kamoshida? Do we just go along with what that cat says? Urgh, that damn furball...'

"If only he knew I was reading this too..." Morgana said, then one of the students saw something outside that suprised them. Another said something about someone was going to jump. Mishima-San said someone's name and Takamaki-San immediately ran out of the class. Akira and I followed to where we could see the girl I saw Takamaki-San with a few days ago on the roof of the school building and then...she jumped. Ryuji came towards us in the hall just as Takamaki-San ran towards the courtyard. We followed suit and made our way toward where an ambulance was now taking her and Takamaki-San away to the hospital. People just took pictures and videos with their phones, we looked on with concern for the girl and disgust for the students. We looked at each other then noticed as Mishima-San ran. We chased him down.

"That hurts!" Mishima-San cried.

"Why'd you run like that? Huh!?" Ryuji asked angrily.

"I didn't run..." Mashima-San replied.

"She jumped and tried to kill herself!" Ryuji yelled, slamming his fist against the locker next to him.

"Ryuji calm down... Mashima-San, you need to tell us what we need to know...and you know what it is we need, don't you?" I asked him calmly holding on to Ryuji's shoulder to calm him down while looking at Mashima-San with an unflinching gaze. It wouldn't take long for him to crack beneath it, it never did, my gaze made even the most mentally strong people feel uneasy.

"I..." He started but couldn't finish.

"Mashima-San... We're not trying to get you in trouble but if you don't speak this will continue and if this continues more will get hurt, or worse die. Do you want that?" I asked him continuing with my stare, he looked at me and saw the emotion in my eyes. I was angry to say the least, Kamoshida did this of that I was sure. And I was going to make him regret what he's done.

"Suzui... She was called out by Mr. Kamoshida!" He finally caved in.

"Wait, what!?" Ryuji yelled a little suprised.

"I was called by him a number of times too...to the teacher's room. It wasn't just me or Suzui either. He'd nominate someone when he was in a bad mood...and hit them." He told us sadly.

"So he really does physically punish people." I replied with sad eyes.

"But yesterday, he called Suzui out of the blue. She didn't make any mistakes or anything... Mr. Kamoshida seemed really irritated that day, so it must've been...worse than usual..." He replied with downcast eyes.

"He didn't...! That son of a bitch...!" Ryuji ran off towards the PE office, we all ran after him. We caught up to him where he was yelling at Kamoshida. We tried to stop him but we all were now threatened, no we were told we were getting expelled. We had until the teachers conference to do something to stop Kamoshida. We went to the back area to talk.

"We can't waste any time. We gotta hurry up and go to that world and beat the shit outta that asshole!" Ryuji yelled out.

"...We're not beating him up. We're simply stealing his distorted desires. Can I assume that you've made up your minds about this-about how he may suffer a mental shutdown?" Morgana asked us.

"...I have. Someone almost died because of him! I don't give a rat's ass what happens to him anymore!" Ryuji replied, Morgana looked to Akira.

"And you?" He asked.

"I agree." Akira responded.

"I'm in too." I told them looking determined.

"Then it's settled." Morgana told us. We were talking when Takamaki-San came up to us.

"Is it true that you're getting expelled?" She asked, "Everyone's talking about it..."

"That asshole's at it again...! So you came all the way just to tell us that?" Ryuji asked her.

"If you're going to deal with Kamoshida...let me in on it too. I can't just sit back and do nothing after what happened to Shiho!" She yelled out angrily, sounding like she was ready to cry.

"This has nothing to do with you... Don't butt your head into this..." Ryuji replied to her.

"But it does! Shiho's my-" Takamaki-San started but Ryuji cut her off.

"I said don't get in our way!" He yelled angrily at her. Ann ran off somewhere.

"...That was harsh." Morgana voiced.

"We can't take her somewhere like that...It was bad enough when Kin followed us in the first time." Ryuji explained.

"And yet I fight better than you" I said with a smirk.

"Ah, shut up!" He yelled, I laughed.

"I hope she doesn't torment herself over this. When it comes down to it, women don't hesitate." I agreed with Morgana, I had a feeling we were in for some suprises today.

"We just gotta hurry up and deal with Kamoshida. Let's go already!" We all walked out to the frount of the school, to an alley way where people wouldn't notice us when we went to the other world.

"The moment we cross over, we'll treat each other like phantom thieves, so I hope you're ready." Morgana told us.

"Huh? Phantom thieves?" Ryuji asked.

"Those that covertly sneak in and stylishly steal Treasure- that is what we become!" Morgana explained.

"Phantom thieves... I like it!" I replied with a small smile.

"That sounds kinda cool! So we just gotta say the school, Kamoshida's name, and...castle? Then we end up in bizarro world." He recalled how the app worked then pulled out his phone, "...How the hell's all this work? Someone make it?" He asked.

"Who knows..." I said shruging my shoulders.

"That's kind creepy, but eh, it seems useful enough. We'll show that effin' Kamoshida!" He said putting his phone back as Akira took his out opening up the app. We were back in frount of the creepy ass castle again. When we did we were all in those strange clothes again.

"All right! Time to bust on through!" Ryuji yelled out.

"What is this!?" A voice yelled back, we all looked over to where Takamaki-San stood looking at the castle in surprise.

"T-Takamaki!?" Ryuji yelled out.

"That voice... Sakamoto!? And...are you Kurusu-Kun, Kin!?" She asked us in more suprise.

"Wh-Why are you here!?" Ryuji demanded.

"How should I know!?" Takamaki-San yelled back, "What's going on? Hey, where are we...!? Isn't this the school!?" She asked as she looked around. Morgana looked at her with a strange expression before he spoke.

"I see. Perhaps she was dragged in because of that app thing." Morgana explained.

"Great... Just what we needed an app that drags everyone close to you in with you..." I replied exasperatedly as I shook my head.

"Wait, so THIS is related to Kamoshida!?" She asked.

"Anyways, you gotta leave!" Ryuji insisted. But she refused and if we made a scene the Shadows were bound to find us. Ryuji and Akira had to pull and shove her back to the entrance like they did for me. I called out to her saying we were sorry and then she was gone. Then we made sure to be more careful with the app. Time to get in there.

"The Shadows have noticed us. You better brace yourselves, got it? We're counting on you, Joker!" Morgana told Akira.

"Joker? That a nickname?" Ryuji asked him.

"Dont refer to it in such a lame way. It's a code name. What kind of stupid phantom thief would use their real name!? I'm not down for that! And there's no telling what kind of effect yelling our real names will have on the Palace... It's just a precaution." Morgana explained to us.

"So, why's he Joker?" Ryuji asked.

"Because he's our trump card when it comes to fighting strength." Morgana explained.

"Not bad." Aki-Joker replied to that.

"It's settled then!" Morgana said pleased, "Next up is you, Ryuji. You'll be... Let's see... "Thug.""

"Are you pickin' a fight with me!? I'll choose it myself! Hm... When it comes to me it's gotta be this mask. Honestly, I actually kinda like it. What if we name me after this?" He said refering to the skull shaped mask he now wore.

"Fine... Why not "Skull" the?" Morgana replied.

"Ooh! That sounds awesome! I'm Skull!" He yelled excitedly, "What do we do about this one's code name?"

"Anything's good." Akira replied.

"...How 'bout "Mona"?" Ryuji asked it.

"Well if Joker thinks it's easier to call me that, then I'll go with it. And what about you?" He asked me, they all turned to me and looked me over.

"Well she's got the whole from grim reaper thing going so..." Ryu-Skull started.

"No..." I immediately replied, neither of those words were going to be my code name.

"You've got stars all over so why not that?" Mona asked.

"Mmm.. No" I answered.

"What do you want to be called?" Joker asked me.

"Hm..." I closed my eyes in thought, "What about..." I pushed the hair on the left side of my face back as I thought opening my eyes to look at the others.

"!!!D-D..." I looked at Mona and Skull who were looking at me stuttering with wide eyes.

"Hm?" I then realized that they now had a clear view of my left eye, I started to smirk as the idea came to me, "..."Demon"... My code name will be Demon" I said pleased with the name. Joker smiled at me as the other two returned to reality(so to speak).

"All right. From now on out, we're Joker, Skull, Mona, and Demon. We need to be absolutely thorough about using those code names from now on!" Mona said as he pulled himself together. We finally entered the Palace again ready to get this heist over with.

 **Here's the end of Chapter 5. Thank you for reading. Remember to send me all questions, comments, or concerns(No complains about character personalitys) okay? See you next time!**

 **Shika Kizuka**


	6. Panther joins the group

**Here's Chapter 6!**

"Panther joins the group"

4/15, After school, Kamoshia's Palace...

We entered through the ventilation shaft. We took the door to our left because of the guards on our right. But there was a guard there too. Akira attacked it and we followed, Morgana showed us how to get money and items from the Shadows but instead Joker got a new "mask" or Persona. It was a cool power to have on our side. Joker now had Pixie at his side. Another guard showed up and Joker used Pixie to make quick work of the Shadows. Morgana and Skull were suprised but I just thought it'd be useful so why worry. We continued on fighting any Shadows that came our way. I found that my new weapon was a perfect fit with my costume, A silver bladed Scythe with a black handle decorated with silver and red stars. My guns were a pair of twin hand guns the right one was silver with black and red stars etched into it, the left a black one with silver and red stars. I now had the hood of my cloak pulled over my head to hide my bright red hair from view. My heeled boots were suprisingly quiet as we walked, and I even left my gold eye uncovered to scare the enemy better...it worked by the way, my mask made it even easier. The black mask covered the whole left side of my face except my eye there were silver and red specks that glittered as the light hit them, the right side only covered the area around my eye with silver instead of black the colors blended in the middle of the mask creating a gray colored line down where the mask changed from the left to right sides of my face. My Persona Laverna used Curse skills like Arsene does so Joker would switch between who used Curse skills to save our stamina as much as possible. Joker also started gathering more Persona as we went he now had not only Arsene and Pixie but also a Jack-o'-Lantern. We also finally found another safe room where we decided to rest but after we had a conversation about an infiltration route and how we needed more man power, we heard something about a princess. Mona went to scout the area while we waited. After a while turns out Takamaki-San found a way back here...kinda like I did, hehe. We had to back track a little so we could rescue her. We followed her voice to a room we couldn't get to earlier, where we found Kamoshida and Shadow guards along with Takamaki-San and the fake Takamaki-San. They were getting ready to execute her when we ran in. After a lot of talking on Kamoshida's end we fought some Shadows and Takamaki-San awoke to her Persona: Carmen. She got rid of the fake her and we all kicked the Shadows' ass' but Kamoshida ran for it, the coward. Takamaki-San fell to the floor in exhaustion so we couldn't do anything else today. We had to high tail it out of the Palace and back to the real world. We ended up at the train station terminal.

"Which one you want?" Ryuji asked Takamaki-San.

"Whichever's not carbonated." She answered.

"Uh, they all are actually." he said after looking at the drinks in his hands.

"Then..." She took one out of his hand. Then handed me and Akira one each, too.

"What about me?" Morgana asked.

"Morgana... Your a cat soft drinks aren't good for you..." I told him, he didn't like the cat part but excepted that he couldn't have one.

"...Have you called down, Lady Ann?" Morgana asked.

"Um... Morgana, right? I really am talking to a cat... This feels so strange... Oh, sorry you're not a cat, right?" She said a little confusingly.

"It's only natural that you're confused. Demanding that you understand all of this right after what you went through is asking too much." Morgana replied.

"Honestly, I still can't believe what happened..." Takamaki-San told us.

"Yeah it's kinda hard to believe something like that but it happened" I told her back.

"And that power...my Persona..." She commented with a little hesitation.

"It's the will of your rebellion, Lady Ann. With it, you'll be able to fight in that other world." He explained to her.

"So if what you told me is true, we can make Kamoshida have a change of heart, right? Is it really possible...? Can we actually force him to confess his crimes?" She asked us.

"Yup!" I replied.

"The volleyball team's keepin' quiet about this, while the teachers and parents turn a blind eye. If guys like us complain they're just gonna shoot us down. Goin' all in on this plan is the only choice we got." Ryuji also replied.

"Then let me help too. I want to make him pay for what happened to Shiho. He just keeps going like nothings happened, even after what he did to her... I'll never forgive him." She asked us with fury in her voice.

"Wait, did you just say, "let me help"? You mean, you want us to take you along?" Ryuji asked.

"Don't act like I'm going to drag you down. Weren't you watching? I can fight too. If Kin can fight then why can't I?" She yelled at him.

"Takamaki-San has a point. I fight and she is strong, so why not let her join?" I asked him with my usual expressionless face my blue eye staring at him.

"I agree as well. We are lacking the manpower, after all. Don't worry I'll protect her." Morgana said.

"Plus she'd probably just go in alone if we said no, right?" I pointed out.

"Yup!" She replied happily.

"Oh right, she can just go by herself.. I guess it's be more dangerous turnin' her down... Rgh, fine..." Ryuji said depressingly. Takamaki-San was happy about the decision. As we talked I grew dizzy suddenly and my left eye felt like it was burning a little but I wrote it of as it suddenly left. We all traded contact info with Takamaki-San. Before she left she told me to call her Ann instead of Takamaki-San so I will. We all headed home for the day after deciding on the roof of the school as our "secret hideout". Morgana went with Akira to stay at the cafe. I could only hope that goes well... When I got home I had dinner with my parents, did my homework for the day, took a shower, changed into my night clothes, and was getting ready for bed when I felt dizzy again only the burning feeling in my eye got worse to the point that both eyes felt like they were being burned by fire. I collapsed on my bed holding my face in my hands until the sensation disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared. And I feel asleep feeling exhausted.

4/16

When I woke up the next morning I felt refreshed and more energetic than usual. I started to go through my usual routine of getting ready in the morning but as I finished doing my hair I stopped to look at myself in it. Looking at the incomplete face that mirrored my own and made a decision I had never thought I'd make I rummaged through my things to find what I was looking for, I found it rather quickly and put it in my hair. Then ran off towards LeBlanc to meet up with Akira...

"Akira!" I yelled out to him as I neared the cafe. He turned towards me but stood frozen when he saw what I'd done with my hair. I had in fact used a silver six-pointed star shaped clip to pull my bangs away from my left eye, so that you could now see it in all it's gold glory.

"You..." He started but didn't seem to be able to finish.

"I decided that I wanted to change things up!" I said simply, " does it look bad?"

"No... I think you look better this way." He told me sincerely as Morgana wriggled out of the whole in Akira's school bag.

"Lady Kin you look exotic! It suites you!" The black cat told me happily.

"Thank you! So how many people do you think I can freak out today?" I asked almost excitedly.

"A lot..." Akira responded with a smile and a soft laugh.

We made our way to the train and even managed to get seats, we talked all the way to school. We also talked about how having a doctor who was at Leblanc yesterday and about how strong medicine would be useful in the Palace. The looks on people's faces were priceless when they saw my left eye most stared then whispered about it and a lot of them ran at the site of it. One of the teachers tried to bust me for wearing colored contacts but I showed them my student ID and they shut up real quick. We all got a text from Ryuji around the afternoon.

Ryuji:'Hey, we're meeting up at the hideout after school, right?'

Ann:'Don't text now. We're in class.'

Kiku:'Didn't I tell you that last time?'

Ryuji:'Whoa! You mean you're actually listening to this crap?'

Ann:'Yeah, but none of it's really sticking today...'

Ryuji:'I know right?'

Kiku:'Yes well some of us are paying attention and getting it...'

Ryuji:'... Anyways, hideout after school?'

Ann:'Where exactly is this "hideout"?'

Ryuji:'The school roof.'

Ann:'Wait we can still go up there?'

Ryuji:'Yeah, I'll let you in. Welp, I'll be waiting. Just come on up after school's over.'

Kiku:'You will regret ignoring me Ryuji Sakamoto.'

Akira:'Just don't kill him. And I'll be there, Ryuji.'

Ryuji:'I'm gonna fine you if your late'

Kiku:'You will pay'

Then the teacher notice Akira wasn't paying attention and threw chalk at him but he dodged it, it bounced and almost hit me instead but I ducked just in time for it to fly behind me instead. The other students were impressed with both Akira and me for our skillful dodge. We all met up on the roof after school where I made Ryuji pay by giving him a low powered kick to his side which left him in quite a bit of pain but he shrugged it off quickly. We spent the day getting ready for entering the Palace. We needed better Weapons, Medicine, and the like. Akira went off with Morgana, I don't know what they did exactly, but when I meet up with Akira right before heading home he said everything was taken care of. This was when I first noticed it... The glowing card above Akira's head I noticed one above Morgana as well, they were different cards but they both had one. What were they? Why were they there? Why did they only show up today? I didn't have any answers but I decided to not dwell on them to much. The only other thing I noticed was a thin blue thread like line going between Akira's card and Morgana's connecting them. I went home and slept, for the night the next day was a Sunday and I just decided to explore the city a little.

4/17

I woke up and dressed in my casual clothes. They consisted of a normal red t-shirt under a plain black hooded jacket, a pair of black jeans, and my favorite boots. I started with exploring Shibuya, maybe see if I could spot the guys while they were there, but mostly just to get a feel for the place so I knew where everything was. I didn't run into either of them but decided I'd just wait till tomorrow to see them.

4/18

Akira and I walked like normal, I ignored the strange cards above his and Morgan's heads, to school where we saw Kamoshida greeting the students. When he saw us, Akira anyway, his attitude changed real quick. He said something to Akira then looked at me with that look again, the lustful one that made me sick. We had a conversation on our phones about Kamoshida. After school we meet up on the roof again, this time we were ready to go all in. On our way up some people bad talked Akira but ran when I glared at them, and hence the "Demon of Shujin" was born. We had a quick discussion on our deadline and what a Treasure was we went into the Palace.

"But daaamn..." Skull started.

"Hm? What's up?" Ann asked.

"N-Nothing I was just thinking we should choose a code name for you too." Skull said.

"A code name?" Ann asked confused.

"I'm Skull, he's Joker, she's Demon, and that's Mona." He said introducing her to our code names.

"Judging by your costume..." Mona started.

"I mean, she's got that tail and stuff, so..." Ryuji added, "What do you think, Akira?"

"I don't know... Catgirl?" Joker replied with a shrug.

"No..." I stated, "I am not going to call anyone Catgirl and I don't think she would like that either."

"Y-Yeah what she said I am SO not down with that!" She yelled.

"What do you wanna be called, then?" Skull asked her.

"Um, something better than just a little cat... Maybe..."Panther"? That sounds pretty cool, doesn't it?" She asked us.

"Huh? Why?" Ryuji asked in turn.

"'Cause it sounds more...ferousious?" She explained.

"She's a cougar...!" Mona said dreamily.

"Don't call me that!" The newly dubbed Panther yelled, "More importantly Kamoshida...!"

"Oh, right. Let's go!" Skull agreed.

We made our way twards the entrance but Joker stopped for a few minutes, zoning out, I saw the faintest traces of a glowing blue door but it was too faint for me to tell if it was real and I couldn't touch it either so I just left it alone. Once Joker was back with us we went inside and made our way up the castle floors. We found maps, treasures(not the treasure we wanted to get to though), new Persona for Joker, and other useful things the books in that library disgusted me to no end, "Kinkiku Kaida: The Beautiful Marionette"? I can't wait to make this guys Palace disappear, I'm no puppet! All those pictures of Ann's friend made me wanna kill the dumbass bastard that did all this. As we made our way through the Palace we became stronger with each battle, learning new skills, and Joker gained many new Persona to help us as we went higher and higher up the castle.

 **And that's it... See you in Chapter 7? Hope you liked the story so far.**

 **Skika Kizuka**


	7. Kamoshida's Confession

**Chapter 7 is here!**

"Kamoshida's confession"

4/18, After school, Kamoshida's Palace...

As we continued on our way we ended up inside Kamoshida's weird ass church. There was a large statue of him in the back part of the disgusting place, with rows of what I think was marble pews, there weren't any guards which made us suspicious. We all walked into the center of the room, I made sure to be on my guard looking out for anything that might be the enemy.

"Wait, was that... the gym...?" Panther asked as we watched the room distort itself.

"I get it... The gym's some kinda holy place for him, He's a god there." Skull realized.

"God? He's nothing but a disgusting, perverted bastard who thinks he can get anything he wants just because he's a good vollyball player." I said with disgust marring my face.

"God, that bastard makes me so freakin' sick! Just you wait Kamoshida...!" Skull said more pissed than he already was.

"I see... So you're the ones who tampered with the library. It seems my time waiting here has paid off..." came a sudden voice then a Guard Captain materialized in frount of us, "Just as that ape there said, this place is a holy ground for our great King Kamoshida. It is preposterous for miscreants like yourselves to come waltzing in like this. You will pay for foolishly defying King Kamoshida... with your lives!"

The guard changed into an archangel of some sort, I smirked "How silly!" everyone looked my way. "You know if this is such a holy place then as one who bares the name Demon I could never just sit and let such a place continue without at least attempting to destroy it!" I told the angel in frount of us, yes I am the demon who will become the nightmare of all those who do people wrong, I will become the avenger of those who cannot stand up themselves in this twisted and distorted world of desires.

"You would dare defile this sacred place?" The angelic shadow yelled out.

"Joker if you would?" I asked him for permission for us to attack, he nodded and we all took our stances. Joker called off orders, Skull tries to use Zio and Panther tried Agi but the shadow was strong against them, same when Joker tried a Bufu. The shadow used his own attacks to attack all of us at once we all guarded but the attack still left a large amount of damage.

"Mona we could use some healing!" Joker called out.

"Right! Media!" A glowing green light glowed around all of us healing our wounds. We tried normal physical attacks and Curse skills, we slowly wore the shadow down before Joker ordered me to help with the finishing blow.

"Demon, teach them a lesson!" Joker called out to me.

"With pleasure!" I pulled out my Twin Pistols and fired a complete round of bullets from both of them towards the shadow. I hit several of the shadow's unguarded spots along with its wings causing the shadow to fall to the ground. We gathered together and attacked all at once destroying the shadow completely.

"*pant*pant* Didn't realize those things could be that tough..." Skull managed to get out.

"Yeah... It looks like he's making a concerted effort to stop us now." Mona agreed, then out of no where a group of shadows popped up, we back tracked a short ways to one of the close by safe rooms for the time being. We healed up with some of the medicine Joker brought, then discussed our next move. Skull really wanted to do something about that statue but we had more important things to worry about. After we were ready to go we made our way up the roof and the tower until we reached the last floor. We made it there in one piece somehow now stronger that we were earlier. We climbed up one of the statues to get to the last room before the treasure room. But what I saw in that room made me want to be sick. Kamoshida was yelling angrily at the soldiers for not catching the intruders(us) yet, and a little ways away there it stood... A fake me. She was wearing a very revealing dress that barely covered her chest, which was much larger than mine I might add, there was a long slit down the side revealing her legs and a portion of her underwear for all to see and she had her arms crossed angrily making her chest seem even bigger from the pressure. She looked at the soldiers with an unamused face and looked disappointed in them. I would have screamed if Joker hadn't covered my mouth before I got the chance. Panther held my shoulder in an attempt to calm me down, but only when Joker said we needed to focus on the Treasure did I calm myself and push the fake out of my mind. I was going to make this man pay for this... We made our way to the treasure room behind Kamoshida. When we did Morgana explained the calling card to us. Tomorrow it was finally time for us to make our move. We quickly left the Palace for the time being...

On our way back to Yongen-Jaya...

"Hey, Morgana?" I called to the cat inside Akira's bag.

"Yes, Lady Kin?" It replied.

"How come we were in that Palace for hours but only a few passed here in the real world?" I asked it.

"Time reacts differently between this world and the other world. A few hours there is only a few minutes here, so the many hours we spent there were only a few here." It explained.

"Oh! So we could clear a path to a Palace's Treasure in a day easily because time is warped inside a Palace?" I asked again.

"Exactly!" Morgana responded with a happy voice, "I must say, Lady Kin, you pick things up much quicker that Ryuji does. Not that's saying much I guess..."

"Haha! We'll I'm heading this way so I'll see everyone tomorrow! See you, Akira!" I called as I ran off twards home, Akira waved as I did, I waved back before disappearing down another street. I fell asleep soon after I got home having a thankfully dreamless sleep.

4/19

After the usual day at school, walking to school, meeting our biology teacher(Mr. Hiruta), and answering a question of said teacher correctly in class(much to the impressment of the other students, It's called studying you morons any one with a brain can do it) we all meet at the hideout. We would send the calling card tomorrow, then go to the Palace immediately after to steal Kamoshida's Treasure. I worried about letting Ryuji write the card but I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. We all went home to rest up for tomorrow.

4/20

Today was the day! Akira and I walked to school, when we got there, there were a bunch of red and black cards posted all over the school.

Sir Suguru Kamoshida, the utter bastard of lust. We know how shitty you are, and that you put your twisted desires on students who can't fight back. That's why we have decided to steal away those desires and make you confess your sins. This will be done tomorrow, so we hope you will be ready. From, the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.

"...Wow." Was the only word Ann seemed to be able to say. Then she walked over to where Ryuji, Akira, and I stood.

"Not bad, eh? I looked up a bunch of similar stuff online for refrence." Ryuji asked us.

"...Who let Ryuji make the card again?" I asked with a deadpaned expression.

"We all did..." Akira answered.

"Right... Our mistake..." I said with a sigh.

"Um... Yeah... I know what you wanted to say, but it sounded like an idiot trying to be an adult." Ann agreed.

"Your logo's a little lacking, too." Morgana chimed in.

"Oh, y'know what? Th-That ain't true!" Ryuji defended.

"Did Mr. Kamoshida do something wrong...?", "Does this mean the rumors are true!?", "Wait a sec... Is someone gonna take something from Mr. Kamoshida...?", "What's with this weird logo? And who're these Phantom Thieves of Hearts people...?" The other students were buzzing with curiosity.

"...It got everyone excited, so it's all good, yeah?" Ryuji asked, then Kamoshida walked by seeing the cards.

"Who's responsible for this...!?" He yelled angrily.

"...Look at that. A predictable reaction for someone who knows what we mean by distorted desires." Morgana mused.

"I think it's hittin' him pretty had." Ryuji joined.

"Did you do this!? Or was it you!?" He yelled at the near by students who fled then turned and saw us, "...Was it you three!?"

"I have no idea what your talking about" I replied with a sigh and an uninterested look.

"So, your playing dumb...? Eh, it's not a problem. You'll be expelled soon enough anyway." He told us then the world seemed to shifted and in Kamoshida's place was the king.

"Come... Steal it, if you can!" He challenged, then everything went back to normal and Kamoshida walked away. It was time to enter the Palace once more. After school was over we entered the Palace, quickly making our way to the top floor. Unlike yesterday the large double doors were now wide open and there was no one in the large throne room. I felt uneasy about it but we had to go if we wanted the Treasure. We went to the treasure room in the back and found a very large crown. Mona went crazy when he saw it but eventually he calmed down. It took all of us to lift it, let alone carry it. As we did I notice how the thread that connected Joker and Mona seemed to grow stronger or maybe I should say it became more concrete? It was heard to explain but the thread bearly visible became more visible and real. As we carried it out of the throne room though we had a bit of a problem. It was a trap...

"Go, go! Let's go! Ka-mo-shida!" Called out a voice that sounded like Ann's but I knew it wasn't. With a spike Kamoshida bashed the crown out of our hands. And stole it back, the fake Ann ran to be on his left while the fake me came to stand on his right. The fake me had a lustful smile on her face that made me sick to my stomach and angry as hell.

"That rat bastard... That's how he sees me and Kin, isn't it!?" Panther seathed.

"Yo, pervert. Were you waitin' to ambush us?" Skull asked him.

"I just made it easier to find you. I'll dispose of you myself. Right here, right now." the Bastard King replied.

"That's our line, you sexually-harassin' D-bag!" Skull yelled.

"What a selfish misunderstanding..." the King said with a smug look.

"Misunderstanding?" I said in almost a whisper.

"How is it a misunderstanding!? You were doing things that you kept in secret from others!" Panther yelled at the king.

"The people around me were the ones who kept it secret. Adults who want to share in my accomplishments, students who have the drive to become winners... They willingly protect me so that all may profit from it."the King said with that disgusting smile of his.

"Profit!?" Skull looked in disbelief.

"There are too many imbeciles who don't understand that! Including naive brats lile you and that girl who tried to kill herself!" the king said.

"True, she's a total idiot... letting you manipulate her, trying to commit suicide... And even I'm even more of a dumbass for not realizing that...! But no matter what kind of fool someone might be... They don't need your permission to live their lives!" Panther yelled back at him.

"Drop that attitude, you mediocre peasent! There's no wrong in using my gifts for my gain! I'm a cut above all other humans!" the king claimed.

"Above...? Hah!" I laughed at him as a wicked smile grew on my face.

"And what is so funny?" the king asked me with a snear.

"The fact that a piece of sexually harassing, abussive trash like you... thinks he's some kind of messiah! I must admit I haven't found something this funny in quite some time. For someone who would use and abuse an innoccent... to think of himself as something better than an ordinary human? How much of a foolish bastard do you have to be?" I replied pulling down my hood to make sure he could see my face in full.

"And what would you know?" he asked me.

"Well they don't call me Demon for nothing now do they? But if we're being honest... the only demon here is you. You're nothing but a demon obsessed with his sick, twisted desires!" I looked at him with pure hatred.

"*chuckle* That's right. I'm not like you... I am a demon who rules this world!" The king became surounded in a black and red energy. As he changed he grabbed both fakes by the waist and he morphed in to a grotesque monster with four arms and a ridiculously long tongue, his body was now pink and he had two horns on his head, and the Treasure sat on his now oversized head. We went on the attack! First we attacked him to get some bearings but he just healed himself. We started to attack the goblet like trophy but this made him pissed, making it more satisfying when we destroyed it. We went in for an all out attack. Then we sent Mona to steal the Treasure off his head, since Panther and I couldn't get Kamoshida to keep his attention off us, Joker was leader, and Skull would get himself noticed. We beat him easily after that. Skull went to pick up the crown but the king took it and ran towards the window.

"What's wrong? Not running away? Why don't you run...? Aren't you a great athlete?" Panther questioned.

"It's always been like this...all those goddamn hyenas forcing their expectations on me...! I'm doing this all for them! What's wrong about demanding a reward for that!?" The king asked.

"Now you're makin' excuses...? We'll do something about that distorted heart of yours." Skull told him. The king groaned.

"Scared? Right now, you're seeing the same view Shiho did. I'm sure she was scared too...except she had no choice but to jump... What will you do? Will you jump? ...Or would you rather die here?" Panther asked him after sending a fire ball close to him to scare him, he threw the crown towards Joker who caught it easily. Then the king returned to his real self and the castle started to crumble around us. We ran for our lives and just barely made it out but we did with the Treasure in hand which was now an Olympic medal. It's was a testament to how fame could go to your head if you're not careful. We all went home for the time being.

As the next few days passed us by Kamoshida had put himself under suspension, Akira was becoming better friends with Ryuji and Ann, and school was as normal as it could be when you're friends with the 'Criminal'. The days till the day we would be expelled drew closer.

4/29

Today was a day without school so I didn't have anything to do that day. I ended up texting Akira to see if he had any plans...

Kiku:'Akira!'

Akira:'What's up, Kiku?'

Kiku:'Do you have any plans today?'

Akira:'No, Why?'

Kiku:'I don't have anything to do plus my parents are working late tonight so I won't have anyone to talk to tonight either. I don't have any friends except you, Ryuji, Ann, and Morgana.'

Akira:'Oh! Why not come over to Leblanc? I can't say it'll be that much fun though.'

Kiku:'I've had fun hanging out with you so far...'

Akira:'Is that so?'

Kiku:'Is that sarcasm I sense?'

Akira:'Maybe?'

Kiku:'I'll be over later. And I will exact my revenge later as well, so be prepared...'

Akira:'I'll remember that, Haha.'

I went and got ready to leave putting my hair up, changing into my casual clothes, and locking the door behind me. We meet up outside of Leblanc and ended up in Shibuya, we went to the bookstore, and caught a movie. Then we went back to LeBlanc and I got to meet Akira's guardian, Sojiro Sakura, and had the best coffee and curry ever! Akira insisted on walking me home afterwards. We said our good-byes and Akira headed back to Leblanc(I ended up forgetting to get my revenge but oh well...).

The next few days went normally as well. Akira and Ryuji hung out on Sunday, Ann spent the time with me trying to keep her mind off of everything. Monday was the fated day...

5/2

Today was it, the day that would make or break all our hard work. Akira and I met up and headed to school as usual. We heard people talking about the calling card again but they saw it as some kind of prank. Then we ended up at a morning assembly, the other students were really insensitive about Suzui-San. These kind of people really made me sick. As the principal started his speech it was interrupted by Kamoshida entering threw the gym door.

"I... have been reborn. That is why I will confess everything to you all..." Everyone was suprised when Kamoshida went to the stage and confessed to his sins.

"I have repeatedly done things that were... unbecoming of a teacher. Verbally abusing students... physical abusing my team, and... sexually harassing female students." The entire time he spoke he looked down at the floor, "I am the reason why Shiho Suzui tried to kill herself!"

The other students started to whisper to each other.

"I thought of this school as my own castle... There were even students that I sentanced to expultion, simply because I didn't like them..." Kamoshida continued, I looked over towards Akira and we shared a look.

"I will, of course, rescind those... I am truly sorry for putting innocent youths through such horrible acts... I am an arrogant, shallow... and shameful person. No, I'm worse than that... I will take responsibility and kill myself for it...!" This was not good... The principal tried to get Kamoshida off the stage and the teachers tried to return the students to their classes but it was hard.

"Don't run, you bastard! Shiho's still alive even after all the things that made her want to die! You have no right to run from this!" Ann yelled out to him.

"You're right... You're absolutly right... I should be punished under the law and atone for my crimes... I did horrable things to Takamaki-San, as well. In return for giving Suzui-San a position on the team... I tried to force her into having relations." The other students whispered and looked at Kamoshida with disgust, "As of today, I will resign from my position as an instructor and turn myself in. Someone, please call the police!"

After that the other students started to comment about the calling card and the Phantom Thieves. They all started to gossip all at once some realizing that the rumors they had heard of many people were false. The other students even came to apologize to Ann and Mashima-San apologized to Akira. It was nice to see people realize the error of their ways...even if the other students still don't like Akira and I very much. At the end of the day Ann went to see Suzui-San and the rest of us went to the roof...

"I totally freaked out... He really did have a change of heart... And we were lucky his mind didn't get messed up either! This was an A **(there's supposed to be a plus sign but I can't put one in for some reason so pretend there's one here)** job!" Ryuji yelled out happily.

"Does this mean that they won't have a mental shutdown even if their palace disappears...? I see... So we need to persuade the shadow without killing it, and then send it back to its real self. Our targets won't undergo a cognitive collapse if we do that." Morgana concluded.

"So, we can get 'em to confess with no bad stuff?" Ryuji asked, "Hey! That works for me!"

"Do you have to be so loud?" Ann asked Ryuji as she came over to us.

"Don't worry about it. So...how'd it go? With Shiho, I mean..." He said with a softer voice.

"She's regained consciousness...!" She said happily, we all looked suprised.

"For real!?" Ryuji asked.

"It was only for a little bit, but I got to talk to her...! I was able to tell her that Kamoshida admitted to what he did...!" Ann bent down to calm herself as she started to cry, "Shiho, she...she told me she was sorry... Looks like she found out that I was flirting with Kamoshida for her sake... And here I was wanting to apologize to her."

"Kamoshida's at fault for all this." Morgana reminded her.

"I know... Shiho's mom is thinking of transferring her to another school after she recovers. The whole sexual harassment and attempted suicide...people will label her after that. Sounded like Shiho had the same idea too." Ann told us.

"It's gonna get lonely..." Ryuji said sadly

"But, I think it's for the best... I'm sure it'll be hard if she stays here." Ann said in understanding.

"She's alive. You can see her anytime." Ryuji said in support.

"...I need to change too." Ann said almost quietly.

"That aside, I was suprised you could hold yourself back against Kamoshida's Shadow." Ryuji said impressed.

"It wasn't like that... I just wanted Kamoshida to apologize himself." Ann relied to that.

"Your so kind, Lady Ann." Morgana told her.

"*silent laugh* Kind? More like cruel revenge. Revenge of the sweetest kind. Kamoshida will now have to live his entire life from now on with the reminder or the sins he has placed upon himself." I replied to Morgana's statement, Morgana and Ryuji looked at me a little horrified.

"Exactly!" Ann said happily.

"Holy shit... A-Anyways, that's all settled... But you know there was one more thing I was wonderin' about that castle. Why was Kamoshida the only one who had that Metaverse thing?" Ryuji asked.

"It isn't necessarily limited to him. It's something anyone could have if their heart becomes warped from their desires."Morgana replied.

"Anyone..." Ann repeated.

"Wanna check it out?" Morgana asked.

"N-Not right now. We better lay low for a while. People are still gonna be talkin' about Kamoshida." Ryuji said then thought about it, "Then again, it's totally impossible for someone to find out what we did in his Palace."

"Yeah, about that... Weird rumors about you guys are already going around. Stuff like, you got together and threatened Kamoshida with something close to physical violence..." Ann told us.

"The hell!?" Ryuji yelled.

"*Sigh* Really physical violence is their only explination for how anyone could make Kamoshida confess..." I said with a shake of my head, people really were stupid sometimes.

"People aren't going to easily believe that phantom thieves really exist. The calling card's being treated as a prank by someone who knew what Kamoshida was doing." Ann reminded us.

"Makes sense... We're the ones who did it, and I still don't completely believe it myself." Ryuji said.

"Let's wait for things to settle down for the time being." Ann said in reply.

"Anyways, let's check how much this medal can be sold for. It'd be better if we pawned it off ASAP." Ryuji actually said something smart, "Ooh, got a hit!...Wait, thirty thousand yen **(That's $273 in us currency, I looked it up on Google so don't hate me if it's wrong)**!? That's all a gold medal's worth!?"

Ryuji and Ann started fighting over the money, we eventual agreed to have a celebration to mark our achievement. Ann was the one who was choosing the place since none of us could really find a reason to refuse. Akira and Morgana were taking care of getting rid of the medal. Ryuji and I would just have to wait till the 5th. Later that night Ann asked about whether or not the medal was real(it wasn't really the real one) and Ryuji and Ann were fighting about something about a dolphin and change for a train fare. These two were going to get on my nerves in the future I just knew it...and so another day ended.

 **And there you are! I don't have any comments so I'll end it here! See you next time!**

 **Shika Kizuka**


	8. Celebration and A New Target

**Okay I just want to say that on the 3rd when Morgana says that the Chief worked them hard I wanted to slap him and ask him what he did... Anyways here's Chapter 8!**

"Celebration and the search for the next target"

15/5

I did my normal routine of getting ready for the day except I chose to wear a different set of clothes than the type I normally wear(I usually dress for comfort and mobility at the same time but actually likes other sorts of clothes, such as the gothic/punk kind I wears in the Metaverse). I wore a red off the shoulder blouse similar to what I wear as Demon only it had a sleeve on the right but not on the left, a tight fitting pair of silver tights under a black knee length skirt with a black belt that had a star shaped buckle, a black jacket with red chain designs along the back, sleeves, and frount, my favorite pair of black combat style boots, a pair of gunmetal dangled earrings with a skull and cross-bones with crosses dangling from the chains connected to them, a choker similar to the one I wore in the Metaverse only the heart shaped pendant was much smaller and had a more intricate design, and lastly two black and silver bracelets, with the one on the right there was a black chain connecting to a black metal ring with a small star shaped ruby on my middle finger. Once I was ready I meet up with Akira outside Leblanc...

"Hey!" I called out.

"Hey!" He replied but when he looked at me he froze.

"Something wrong?" I asked tilting my head to the side slightly.

"...N-No nothing!" He said turning away with a slight blush dusting his cheeks.

"..." I silently watched him with my head tilted to the side as Morgana poked his head out of the bag Akira was carrying.

"Lady Kin you look amazing!" Morgana said excitedly.

"T-Thanks" I replied with a bright red blush on my face, "W-We'd better go. Wouldn't want to keep the others waiting."

We met up with the others and followed Ann to the hotel where the restaurant was. And go figure that as soon as we get there Ann and Ryuji start stuffing their faces full of food... As the two keep getting more food that they will never be able to eat all of it without throwing up we talked about the new website made for the Phantom Thieves. Then Ann and Ryuji got even more when they remembered the time limit. When they got back Akira left to get more for himself and Morgana went with him but he got considerably less than the other two. Ryuji helped Morgana and Akira finish off their food while I calmly ate my smaller portions and Ann some how made her pile of cake disappear(I don't know how but she did it) and the boys ended up having to go to the restroom **(remember over eating can make you very ill so I do not suggest it, please do not do as Akira, Ryuji, and/or Morgana does, I wouldn't eat a ton of sweets like Ann either that can also make you ill. Neither is fun...)**. Before the boys left we heard some of the adults talking about us I immediately decided to take action.

"Honestly, you guys didn't need to stuff yourselves silly. If you wanted to come back sometime I would have been more than happy to bring you all!" I said with a sigh.

"What are you talking about?" Ryuji asked me.

"Ryuji... I'm a Kaida! I'm not exactly poor now am?" I replied to him.

"Oh my did she say Kaida as in THE Kaida's the two of them are both very successful people!" One of the adults near us exclaimed in a wispered voice. The adults all looked at me as I proper my head up with one of my hands with a smirk on my face.

"Um? What's so special about your parents that people would act like that?" Ann asked me quietly.

"My family is a very successful one, my father comes from a line of successful businessmen and my mom is a renouned food critic. There isn't an adult in this hotel who don't know the Kaida name one way or the other." I explained in a quiet voice.

"Seriously!" Ryuji exclaimed a bit.

"Mhm!" I replied happily with a nod these people were terrible people, my parents raised me to act like any other person not a big ass snob.

Ann left the table for a little while after the boys left, when she got back she looked very unhappy. The boys eventually came back looking just as upset. We talked for a while before we decided to continue being Phantom Thieves Akira officially became our perminant leader and we decided on the name of our group, we were now the Kodokuna ōkami **(Lone Wolves in Japanese, I liked the meaning okay! And yes I am aware that that doesn't even fit in the space provided by the game but it's more fun than calling them the lone wolves, for me at least. If it's to much of a mouthful for you you can just call them the lone wolves and I won't mind)**. Next was to start searching for our next target, a 'bigwig' that we all agree on. Time for some research. We all went home for the day.

5/6

We spent a relatively normal day at school. Until Mashima-San came up to Akira and I and talked about us being part of the Phantom Thieves. We learned that he was the one who made the Phan-site, he said it was a way of apologizing for what he did to Akira along with anything he could do to help and I saw a card appear above Mashima-San's head like the one's above Akira, Morgana, Ann, Ryuji, and Sakura-San. After Mashima-San left Ryuji and Ann came over and we were talking when Ryuji suddenly remembered we had exams coming up. Ann and Ryuji started to fight over who was better at failing. Akira and I just looked at one another with exasperated looks as they bickered back and forth, then Morgana joined in and I was getting fed up with it. We finally seperated and went home.

5/7

As we were talking on the roof after school, someone I didn't recognize walked over to us and started to talk...

"This place is off limits, you know." The brown haired girl told us.

"...We'll get outta here once we're done chattin'." Ryuji responded, "Anyways, what's Miss Council President want with us?"

"The troublemaker, the girl of rumor, the infamous transfer student, and the other transfer student they refer to as the 'Demon of Shujin'... Interesting combination." The President noted.

"...! Great way to start a conversation..." Ann said irritatedly.

"By the way... It seems as though you got to know Mr. Kamoshida pretty well." The President said towards Akira.

"Not really." Akira responded.

"You do know he's only been here a month or so, right?" I asked her a little peved myself.

"Hm... I heard Mr. Kamoshida used a volleyball team member to spread details of your past record. Don't you hate him? Mr. Kamoshida, I mean." The girl asked him another question.

"You know you shouldn't accuse people of feeling any emotion. No matter what rumors are going around... Akira's a nice guy despite the image people give him." I replied to her before any of the others could speak.

"Yeah, my friend here's an upstanding guy." Ryuji said as back up.

"I don't mean to offend. Many students have been shaken up by what happened with Mr. Kamoshida. The rumors about that odd, calling card-esque posting aren't going away either." She replied to us.

"I didn't expect someone like you would care about that tactless stuff, Niijima-Senpai." Ann told her.

"I dunno that it was tactless... Anyways, we done here? We can't leave if you keep talkin' to us." Ryuji replied to Ann's comment then directed his words at Niijima-San.

"At least try to understand my position. Being forced to deal with this horseplay..." She replied with slight bitterness.

"Horseplay...!?" Ann exclaimed.

"Ah yes, by the way... It's been decided that this place will be closed off due to the incident. I heard some people were coming up here without permission, after all. ...I'm sorry to have interrupted you." She told us, then left the roof.

After we talked a little more we knew Niijima-San was on to us. Then Morgana said he'd take us somewhere special. We followed him to the station square then he told Ryuji to find a person's full name and enter it along with the word Mementos into the Meta-Nav. When Ryuji did the familiar sensation of entering a Palace surrounded us and all the people around us disappeared and we followed Morgana down into the subway. We ended up changing into our thieves outfits suddenly and there were strange bloodvain like tangles on the walls, floor, and ceiling. Mona explained that this place was a collection for the consciousness of the people who didn't have a single Palace instead they have one large Palace **(I still can't figure out how no one in the initial characters, meaning Ryuji, Ann, and Yusuke, can't understand that)**. Than...he turned into a car(I still don't see the point in the weird pose he did) how the hell he did that I have no clue but it wasn't like I could do anything about it. Joker and I ended up in the frount seats with Joker driving with the other two in the back. The part where there was purring coming from the engine was a little creepy but we ignored it for now. We made our way to the distortion where we found the target, Nakanohara, and we hopped into it. After talking a little bit to the Shadow we ended up having to fight it, Skull helped us make short work of it with a Electric attack. The Shadow then told us of a man named Madarame then disappeared into a blue colored light leaving behind the bud of a Treasure. We then went to the second level where there was a large wall blocking our path, but when Mona touched it opened up to reveal more stairs leading down. We then left Mementos, established that Morgana was male, heard Ryuji's stupid comments, and headed home for the day but before we did I felt like we were being watched but I wasn't sure if it was an after affect of being in Mementos or not so I ignored it for now.

5/9

Akira and I meet up and went to the station. We went to switch trains and ran into Ann.

"Morning... Uhh..." Ann greeted.

"What's up?" Akira asked.

"Actually... I've been having this feeling that someone's watching me... No, it can't be..." Ann told us.

"You too?" I asked her.

"Huh? You mean you're getting that kind of feeling too?" She asked me back.

"I had that feeling on Saturday and a little yesterday... I thought it might have been an after affect of being in a Palace..." I told them, when I think about it I kind go the feeling now but where was it coming from.

"Well we are always on guard in a Palace so it could be you just haven't shaken off that feeling yet." Akira tried to reassure us.

"Y-Yeah! Maybe..." Ann replied with a forced smile, I just hoped this feeling would go away for good, we all made our way to school. We meet up at the hideout after school. Ann was kinda conserned about studying for exams, but Ryuji wanted to avoid studying. I promised Ann we'd make him study later(whether he liked it or not). We went to Mementos and found the target, a brown haired bully by the name of Takanashi, we destroyed all the Shadows that got in our way and beat Takanashi's Shadow with ease, we also found out that he was a victim of another bully. But he would have to wait for another time, after that we returned to the real world for now and went home.

5/10

The day started normal, until we ran into Niijima-San.

"It looks like you're attending school seriously." She said to Akira.

"..." I looked at her with slight weariness.

"You also seem pretty close to Takamaki-San if your going to school together." She observed, "You just transferred here though... I guess you two really click."

"Well we are all in the same class." I told her, she finally turned to me in recognition.

"...I see. You seemed a lot closer than that yesterday morning. I heard she was a victim of Mr. Kamoshida, but was that all there was to it...? Either way, closer inspection should clear everything up..." She said in understanding, "Oh, yes! Kaida-San, we have had some complains about a student who's apparently been dyeing their hair and wearing colored contacts, I suggest you stop doing that before you get into trouble."

"They're naturally colored this way both my hair and eyes you can ask my parents or even ask them to see my birth certificate. I have no reason to lie either, I almost wish it was as simple as wearing contacts, if they were contacts I could stop getting grief for them." I replied with a deadpanned face.

"Hm... I see, well I will do what I can to make the rumors stop on that matter... Goodbye." she replied to my explanation, then left I was fuming internally, but kept my cool all the way threw school. After school we ran into the others before going home and we told them what Niijima-San said, they both weren't happy about it but I told them there was no reason to do anything. All the teachers would know that my colors were all natural and there was no point in trying to get others to understand if they were so intent on beliving they'd were unnatural. Ann and I dragged Ryuji to the Diner in Shibuya to study, Akira followed us and we all studied for the exam tomorrow. After we were all done it was really late by then and we all went home for the night.

Exams **(I didn't feel like making my own questions so I just used the ones from the game)** :

5/11

1.Although the line connects A and C, it looks like it leads to B instead. What is this phenomenon called?

A mirage.

An optical Illusion.

Astigmatism.

Answer: An optical Illusion.

2.What is the reason why people will see the same thing differently?

Answer: How the brain interprets the same visual data-how one preserves the world-differs from person to person.

The teacher called for time just after I managed to double check my answers.

5/12

1.Which of the following expressions came from the name of the position that Minamoto no Yashitsune held?

Braggart.

Magistrate's Patronage.

Not pot attendant.

Domineering husband.

Answer: Magistrate's patronage.

2.What is the origin of the English word "talent"?

The name of a sum of currency.

The name of a saint.

The name of an artist.

Answer: The name of a sum of currency.

5/13

1.What did the Greek philosopher Socrates say that evil is born from?

Ignorance.

Desire.

Curiosity.

Answer: Ignorance.

2.What's the least number of colors needed to paint Japan so no two adjacent areas are the same color?

Two.

Four.

Eight.

Forty-six **(The real possible answer got deleted and I don't know what it was and I'm not going to search for it)**

Answer: Four.

5/14

Today was the last day of Exams. Akira and I meet up with Ryuji and Ann at the station. While the others were talking I felt the feeling of being watched again, I'd been happening all week but I just couldn't stop getting this feeling at least once everyday...usually while I was waiting with Akira to catch the train for school. Ann seemed off too, I wondered if she was getting that feeling too. We eventually got on the train and it headed towards our school. As we got off the feeling continued only for Ann to realize that a certain guy got off the train too, she pointed this out to all of us and I noticed a dark haired teen who looked slightly familiar. When I thought about it I remembered seeing him when ever I got the feeling of being watched, I told the others about it and Ryuji just acted like he didn't care until Ann started yelling at him. Ryuji eventually made us stand outside the entrance to the train station with the boys waiting a ways away. Then I had the feeling of someone come closer to us but just as they reached to grab Ann's shoulder the boys blocked him, the dark haired teen who stood there looked confuse at this gesture. Then went to explain how he saw us from the car and 'couldn't help himself'. Then he started to yell something about being models for his art work **(Yusuke is one of the characters who annoys me the most at the beginning)**.

"Will you cooperate with me? What do you say?" The strange boy asked us a little pushily.

"Hold your horses! Who're you anyways?" Ryuji asked him for us.

"Oh, where are my manners? I'm a second-year at Kosei High's fine-arts division. My name is Yusuke Kitagawa." He pushed Ryuji aside to get closer to Ann and I and I backed up, ready to hide myself behind Akira if this guy tried to get any closer, "I'm Madarame-Sensei's pupil, and I am being allowed residence at his place. I'm striving to become an artist."

"Huh? Do you mean THAT Madarame? The one who was on "Good Morning Japan" the other day?" Ann asked.

"The very same." Kitagawa-San replied.

"Madarame... Oh!" I remembered the name clearly.

"You know who that is?" Ryuji asked us.

"He was introduced as a super-famous Japanese-style artist who's been recognized all over the world." Ann explained.

"My parents have gone to a few of his exhibits before, I even meet him for a short time" I explained my recognition.

"Yusuke!" Called out a voice from inside a car parked close by.

"I'm sorry, Sensei. I'll be right there!" Kitagawa-San replied to the man.

"That old guy's Madarame...?" Ryuji asked, I nodded.

"Madarame-San, it's a pleasure to see you again." I called with a fake smile.

"Huh? Ah! Kinkiku Kaida, the pleasure is all mine!" He said with his own smile.

"Madarame-Sensei's exhibition will begin at the department store near the station tomorrow. I'll be there to help out on opening day. Please come by. It'd be great if you could give my your answers I regards to being models then..." He said with a smile as he pulled out four tickets, handing them to Ann, then directed the next statement at Akira and Ryuji, "I bet you have no interest in the fine arts, bit I'll give you tickets too. Well then, I hope to see you there tomorrow!"

"That guy's as easy to read as a book... You're not plannin' on goin', are you?" Ryuji asked us.

"...I think I will." Ann replied, then ran off towards school.

"How dare he go after Lady Ann and Lady Kin... I've memorized that face of yours, Yusuke!" Morgana said angrily.

"Why would he want me as a model, Ann I could understand, but me?" I questioned.

"Huh? Well you are pretty popular in the looks department" Ryuji told me.

"HUH? There's no way that's true, everyone other than you guys are scared of me I'm the opposite of popular. Anyways we'll be late if we dont hurry, lets go!" I replied before running off the same way Ann did. We finished the last of our exams then we meet up where Ryuji was mad about how Akira was a 'Traitor' or something and we finally stopped talking about exams. Then we all decided to go to that exhibit tomorrow to see if we could get more info on Madarame-San to see if he was the one that we heard about in Mementos. We made plans to meet up before the exhibit then head there together, then we all headed home for the day.

 **And** **there's Chapter 8! The only thing I figured I'd tell you this time is that Kinkiku's Arcana is the Fool Arcana... For now anyway*smirks at the secret's I have going through out this story*. Her real Arcana will be revieled later in the story, I will give you a hint though. Her Arcana is one of the Arcana's that have been used in previous Persona games, that hasn't been used in Persona 5. That narrows the Arvana's considerably if I'm not mistaken... You can guess if you want but I won't tell you which it is!*Smile's innocently*. See you next chapter! Don't forget to review with comments, questions, or conserns(but no flames, thank you very much!).**

 **Shika Kizuka**


	9. The Corrupt Artist

**Here's Chapter 9!**

"The corrupt artist"

5/15

We all meet up and went inside the exhibition.

"So crowded..." Morgana commented.

"It'll be a pain in the ass if someone sees you, so don't stick your head out too much, all right?" Ryuji whispered.

"You came!" Kitagawa-San nearly yelled out with joy when he saw Ann and I.

"Um... Yeah." Ann replied.

"Yeah..." I replied with obvious discomfort.

"You really came." He said to Akira and Ryuji with obvious disinterest.

"What'd you expect when you left us those tickets!?" Ryuji asked.

"Make sure you don't get in the way of the other visitors." Kitagawa-San told Ryuji then turned to Ann and me, "Come now. I'll show you around. I'd like to speak to both of you about the pictures I'd like to draw too."

"Well, see you guys later." Ann said grabbing my arm and pulling me with her.

"Bye..." I said as I reluctantly followed. Kitagawa-San slowly showed us each of the area's there different style's or themes were put together. We eventual came to another section where Ann and Kitagawa-San started to talk.

"I didn't know there were so many types of Japanese art." Ann exclaimed.

"Usually one consentrates on their own style. However, Sensei creates all this by himself. He's special." Kitagawa-San explained.

"There you are, Yusuke." Madarame-San called.

"Sensei!" Kitagawa-San replied.

"Ah, the girl from yesterday and Kaida-San. Are you enjoying the exhibit?" He asked us.

"I dont know how to put it into words...but it's really amazing." Ann replied.

"You're sensing something from the artwork... That alone is enough to give us artists satisfaction." Madarame-San replied to her, "I hope they become wonderful pieces, Yusuke. Well then, if you'll excuse me."

"You'd imagine artists would be difficult to approach...but he seems really friendly." Ann said after he'd walked away.

"Indeed." Yusuke agreed, Ann walked over to a piece near by.

"Oh, this is it-the painting I wanted to see in person." She said excitedly.

"...This one?" Yusuke asked her with a confused expression.

"I guess it's the painter's anger? I'm not sure, but I sense this...strong frustration from it. To think such a cheerful and gentlemanly person could make such a piece..." Ann said, I looked at the piece then at Kitagawa-San who had a pained expression. Ann noticed it and asked if something was wrong but he just brushed it off as nothing and led us to another area. I guessed the painting was either his or someone he was close to. We finished up, Kitagawa-San gave us his contact info and Madarame's address, and then we left to find the others only to find Akira and Ryuji had left without us. When we found them Ryuji told us about a post online. We(meaning Ryuji) decided to go to Madarame-San's house tomorrow. I was not looking forward to it at all...

5/16

School passed normally, we met up at the train station, got on the train, and got off in Shibuya. We walked to the 'shack' and Ann ended up being the one to ring the doorbell. We(meaning Ryuji, again!) ended up making Kitagawa-San angry, then stood on the other side of the street talking. Akira checked the Meta-Nav and we found that Madarame-San really did have a Palace. We tried to find the keyword for the distortion.

"Why don't we start with "castle"?" Ann asked, not the one.

"Then, what about "prison"?" Ryuji tried.

"Nope..." I replied as the app responded.

"Ugh, what a pain! "Jail"! "Warehouse"! And "guidance counselin' office"! Might as well add "farm"!" He almost yelled, but no match.

"Not a single hit..." I expressed as we all thought.

"...Should we come back another time?" Morgana asked.

"But we're already here." Akira pointed out.

"A building that's related to artists..." I thought about it and slowly filtered the words I knew that were associated with art, "What about ..."museum"?"

""Beginning navigation..." Whoa, really!?" Ryuji yelled out suprised. The Nav activated and the world warped. We now stood before a gaudy gold building in our Phantom clothes.

"Hey, when did you activate the Nav!? You suprised me!" Mona yelled out.

"Didn't have much of a choice. I think we just happened to get it right." Skull replied.

"What if I hadn't noticed, and then wandered off and got caught by an enemy!?" Mona asked Skull.

"You prolly woulda figured it out once you started walkin' on two legs." Skull replied.

"Grrr..." Was Mona's only reply.

"Now, now. No fighting." I scolded.

"So even you can slip into the Metaverse without realizing it, Morgana?" Panther asked.

"Yup. In a place with minimal cognitive distortions, the differences can be subtle." He explained.

"Forget that... Look!" Skull pointed at the gold museum behind the others, we decided to get going.

"Are we going wait in that long ass line?" Skull asked us.

"Are you stupid? What kind of Phantom Thief walks through the front door?" I asked him exasperatedly, slapping my forehead with my palm.

"But there's a high wall around the building..." Panther pointed out.

"Over there!" I pointed a part of the wall. We climbed over a truck conveniently parked against the tall gold fenceing **(seriously what kinda idiot would do that? I'd beat them if I was security...)** , over the columns, up and across ledges, till we came to a skylight on the roof of the museum leading down to a section full of paintings, luckily Mona had rope so we could get back out. It was suspiciously quiet, the paintings seemed to move, when you looked closer the plaks **(I don't know if that's spelled right, but you get the idea anyways)** had a name and age. This place was even weirder than Kamoshida's Palace... All the paintings were like that no matter where we went they has the same creepy composition and the plaks had similar descriptions of the art. We found one of Natsuhiko Nakanohara, the man we found in Mementos, as well. Then as we continued Panther yelled out for us to stop...

"Hey, isn't this a painting of that guy?" Skull asked us as we looked at the painting of Kitagawa-San.

"It says "Yusuke Kitagawa." There's no mistaking it." Mona replied.

"Huh...? Wait a second... What do you think these paintings are...?" Panther asked.

"If I had to guess...no I'm 'sure', these are Madarame's pupils..." I said sadly as I looked at the painting.

"I think you're right." Panther said in reply.

"For real? All of 'em...? But it was only Yusuke when we went to his place before..." Skull yelled out with suprise.

"His former pupils must be included too." Joker stated **(He doesn't have enough lines I'm sorry! He needs more and I intend to give him more by stealing other people's lines or adding new ones completely, but it's hard to cause he's just become a rather quiet character. He now has a mind of his own when I write his lines... A very quiet mind...)**.

"Only one remains now..." Mona agreed, "Taking into account what that Nakanohara guy said earlier, things are getting clearer."

"We should keep going for now. We still need something for the plagiarism and abuse right?" I looked at each of the others they all nodded and Joker led us to the next room. Where we found a pamphlet with part of the map we would need. Then we went on to find a giant sculpture...

"Hm... Look at this." Mona prompted us.

""The Infinite Spring"? "A conglomerate work that the great director Madarame created with his own funds. These individuals must offer their ideas to the director for the rest of their lives. Those who cannot do so have no worth living!"" Panther read, "Hey... This is most likely about the plagerism, right...?"

"Director? More like dictator..." I said with disgust.

"Dammit, what a phony geezer!" Skull yelled.

"In other words, his pupils are his property. He doesn't even qualify as an artist if this is true. He's stealing the ideas from talented students in exchange for their livelihood." Mona said disapointrdly, "I wondered about those portraits on display... They must be his "pupils" through his cognition."

"He sees them as objects he can use and throw away as he sees fit..." I clenched my jaw, my hands balled into fists shaking with anger, Joker put a hand on my left shoulder calming me down a little.

"This even says they have no worth. Couldn't this be about the abuse?" Mona asked, "Madarame will keep them around as long as they're useful to him, but the moment their not..."

"He's treating them like slaves or tools!" Panther yells sadly.

"Why's Yusuke keepin' quiet about this? He has no reason to cover this up!" Skull yelled.

"He did say that he owes Madarame his life for being taken in..." Pantger replied.

"He feels like he has to... He tries to pretend it doesn't exist..." Joker finally input, he's been very quiet this entire time, even quieter than me...and that's saying something cause I usually don't talk all that much.

"But still...!" Skull started.

"When we were at the exhibit, I praised on of the pieces on display. But... Kitagawa-Kun acted strange. Maybe that piece was plagerized too..." Panther explained to the others.

"I think it might have been his or the piece of a pupil he knew..." I added.

"What's the call? Ain't this enough to target Madarame?" Skull asked Joker.

"Hm... What do you all think?" Joker asked us.

"We should confirm these facts with Yusuke first." Mona answered.

"Yeah." Panther agreed.

"Confirm what though!?" Skull asked.

"We need solid evidence that such crimes actually took place... Either from Kitagawa-San or another of Madarame's pupils..." I told him.

"What a pain in the ass..." Skull replied.

"Besides, there's too much we don't know about Madarame yet." Mona added.

"...Mm, you're right. I'll try contacting Kitagawa-Kun." Panther told us, "I might be able to get the truth out of him if I accept his modeling offer."

"Wait, you're gonna do that!?" Mona asked.

"H-Hold on! If you accept then he'll start asking about me too..." I looked at the ground uncomfortably.

"Right... You're not even sure why he'd want to paint you, huh?" Skull asked.

"You all better come with me, OK? I'm scared to go alone..." Panther said depresingly, "And you'd better come for Demon's sake too. I don't think he'd leave her alone if it was just the two of us..."

"A famous renowned artist, huh? This might be tougher than Kamoshida. Well, we'll just prep ourselves until we get confirmation from Yusuke." Skull pointed out.

"I really don't like this..." I said quietly, no one seemed to hear me.

"This is our first mission as official phantom thieves. We're gonna succeed no matter what!" Skull said, then we all went home for the day.

5/17, During class...

Ann:'All right, I contacted Kitagawa-Kun about modeling for him. Still waiting for a response.'

Ryuji:'Thanks.'

Kiku:'Did you mention me?'

Ann:'No, but if he asks what should I say?'

Kiku:'...Sigh, tell him I'm still thinking about it but that I'll be coming with you anyways.'

Ann:' Ok, I really have no idea what to do as an art model though...'

Akira:'I don't think your really suprised to do anything...'

Ann:'You know in a way, you might just be right.'

Ryuji:'Look, you don't gotta go all out for this. You're only doing it so you can get dirt on Madarame, remember?'

Ann:'That is true. It sounds like Kitagawa-Kun wants this to be a private picture of his though... Well, I guess I'll let you guys know when he contacts me again.'

After school...

"I got a response from Kitagawa-Kun. He said he wants me over after school today." Ann told us.

"Perfect. He prolly changed his plans immediately just so he could get you over there." Ryuji said, slightly happy at this outcome.

"We need to find out from Kitagawa-Kun if what we saw in the Palace was true..." Ann said with determination.

"Hey, quiet down. It's that student council president." Morgana told us, she had Mishima-San trapped and was questioning him.

"Yikes... She got hold of Mishima today? It'd suck if she noticed us. C'mon, let's split up." Ryuji told us.

"OK, see you later." Ann said before they both walked off. We meet back up at our new hideout. Talked for a bit then headed off to Madarame's. When we got there Kitagawa-San was a little irked to see Akira and Ryuji but didn't delve too deep into why they were here. We waited for hours as he sketched and sketched, Morgana left the room to do some recon on the outside of the room, and we finally got Kitagawa-San to talk but when we tried to get it twards Madarame he got angry and talked about going to the police if Ann and I didn't pose nude for him. Oh, he had no IDEA who he was messing with!! To say I was pissed would be an understatement. We left the house for now... While we were outside we were talked to by a journalist, she gave Akira her card then walked off. We went home after that...

5/18

After school we immediately went to the station in Shibuya, we ended up talking to Nakanohara and he told us about Madarame. We learned about the plagiarism, abuse, and even a pupil who committed suicide... It was hard to listen to all the horrible things Madarame has caused. We made the dicission to change Madarame's heart, we couldn't let him continue to cause so much suffering. We have till June 5th to get the treasure, we went back into the Palace to secure an infiltration route...

Inside Madarame's Palace **(I dub thee Gaudy Museum! You may continue reading now...)**...

We headed back in the same way we did last time, going past the different rooms and those damned lasers, till we got back to the room with the statue(pissed me off just looking at the damned thing). As we continued on we made sure that all the shadows we passed were quickly dispatched, found a safe room, and we eventually came to a room with a gold vase in the center. As the others made to move passed Mona stopped us...

"H-Hey, wait a second! You're just going to ignore that golden sheen?" He asked, "Hmmm... Look at that luster... I know it might be tough to take it with us, but don't you think it'd sell for tons?"

"Mona wait don't...!" Before I could grab him he bounced/jumped onto the pedestal.

"C'mon, we didn't come here to- Hold on, you're steppin' on something!" Skull yelled out.

"Wait isn't this bad!?" Panther asked.

"Stand back." Joker said as he and I jumped back away from the vase, dodging the lasers, the others weren't so lucky... They were now trapped by a large grid of lasers.

"Oh no, I tripped the security!" Mona said unhappily.

"I tried to warn you..." I said with a sigh.

"Ugh, and you were the one makin' us be careful too... So, whatcha wanna do? Run outta here?" Skull asked, the others hadn't realized Joker and I weren't trapped.

"No, passing through all of these lasers will draw too many enemies to our location!" Mona stated.

"Oh, hold on! Joker and Demon aren't trapped!" Panther exclaimed.

"We reacted faster, so we got out of the way in time..." I told her.

"Sorry Joker, Demon, but we're going to need you to search for a way to turn off these infired lasers! This is a museum, so there has to be some switch to let the workers avoid these lasers. Find it...!" Mona explained.

"On it!" Joker said with a nod. I followed him as we jumped and claimed around switching the lasers off so that Panther, then Skull were free, but we needed to go to the control room to free Mona. We ended up having to use an airduct, then listen in on the guards talk about the password. The password, "Hello", was 07734 **(Worst password ever)** , we quickly input the code and freed Mona. Then we found a "Treasure Demon" in the vase and moved on after beating it up. We slowly made our way up to the Central Garden, fighting passed shadows, finding safe rooms for later use, and getting passed lasers to do it. But when we got there there was a large mass of electrical lasers and the large doors on the other side was closed. There wasn't anyway through at the moment, we ended up having to go home for the time being but we had a plan to open the door, we'd put it to action as soon as we could. For now it was time to rest...

 **And here's Chapter 9! I don't have much to say at the moment other than send me any comments, questions, and/or concerns(but no flames, telling me how to fix something in my story and just complaining are two very different things). Thanks for reading!**

 **Shika Kizuka**


	10. Madarame Reveals His True Colors

**Hey, I finally finished rewriting the first 9 chapters! Yay! And now you get to read Chapter 10! I just wanna say I'm sorry this chapter is mostly Madarame amd his long winded dialogue but on the plus side there's some KinkikuAkira fluff, I think is what everyone calls it, at the end. And also I do reccomend going back and rereading if you aren't new to my story, if you are new to the story then ignore that. And finally I'm sorry that Kiku doesn't talk much or do much in the story, but she's got a reason so read this chapter and you'll understand. I hope you will forgive me for my spelling and grammer, most of it is caused by my lack of skill but some of it is my stupid phone's autocorrect not working. My Auther's Note's are made right on the App which does not let me use Atocorrect so leave me alone about those. Honestly I think it lets you see my personality better this way. Now I'll leave you to your readng, here's Chapter 10.**

"Madarame Reveals His True Colors"

5/19

"Do we really have to do this?" I asked Akira on our way to school.

"It's the only way to get to the door." Akira replied.

"Right..." I looked down at the ground as we walked.

"You're not the only one who'll be doing it anyways, Ann will too..." He reminded me.

"But I'll still have to be the one to do something if things go wrong, right?" I asked him.

"I'll be there too you know!" Morgana called from Akira's bag.

"I know, but even if you don't like it in this world you're a cat. You can't do much if Ann or I get into trouble." I reminded him.

"...Right..." He replied sadly, I know it was kinda harsh but it was the truth the most he could do is scratch Kitagawa-San's eyes out or something like that.

"Come on, we don't wanna be late!" Akira told me and we hurried to school. After school was over we all meet up at the hideout.

"Ann, Kin, Morgana, we're countin' on you. Me and Akira're banned from goin' there, so all we can do is wait here..." Ryuji told us.

"No, you two have something different you'll need to do." Morgana told him.

"Whaddya mean...?" Ryuji asked him.

"You have to wait inside the Palace. Once that door opens, sneak in and look for some kind of control room. We need to make sure the door can't close anymore after it's open." Morgana explained.

"Oh, I get it. M'kay, you can leave that to us!" Ryuji assured us.

So Ann, Morgana, and I headed to Madarame's while Akira and Ryuji went to his Palace. Before we got there Ann put on a large amount of clothes over top of her normal ones. I almost laughed at how pudgy she looked like that, but Kitagawa-San's expression was even more priceless. I was just waiting outside the door watching as Ann had Kitagawa-San turn around, then he turned around only to find she still had clothes on. Then she ran off, with myself close behind, throwing her jacket on the floor to entice Kitagawa-San to follow after us. Once we got to the door Madarame came back and saw all of us standing in frount of the gaudily painted door that matched the one from his Palace, Ann grabbed Kitagawa-San and pulled him into the room with me following behind.

"Takamaki-San, Kaida-San, this is bad...!" Kitagawa-San sounded overly worried.

"Are these the lights...?" Ann pulled at something and the light flickered on. What we saw caused us all to gasp.

"What the...!?" Kitagawa-San looked around astonished and confused.

"Isn't this... "Sayuri"?" I asked as I inspected one of the paintings, the red clothes, the black hair, the gentle, happy, warm expression...except I didn't feel the same way I had when Kitagawa-San had shown me the picture of "Sayuri", these paintings didn't have the same emotions in them...

"Why are there so many of them...?" Ann wondered, there had to be at least a few dozen of them.

"I have no idea..." Kitagawa-San sounded lost as he looked at the paintings.

"Get out!" Madarame demanded, we all looked to him.

"Sensei, what is the meaning of this...?" His apprentice asked looking like a lost child.

"I suppose I can't keep it quiet now that you've seen this... Truth be told... I'm in severe debt. I handmade these "Sayuri" copies and have been selling them through a special connection of mine..." Madarame told us his sob story, but I didn't buy it there was no truth in his eyes as he told it, my father always told me you could see the truth and lies in a person through their eyes.

"But why...?" Kitagawa-San questioned, yes why indeed...

"The real "Sayuri"...was stolen by one of my pupils long ago. I assume they begrudged my strictness... That moment was quite a shock for me... Since then, I've been mired in a terrible artist's block..." I must admit this man makes a better actor than artist, "Because of this distress, some of my pupils handed their ideas overy to me from time to time..."

"..." Ann looked away unconvinced.

"I knew I couldn't keep that up, so I attempted to recreate the "Sayuri" a number of times. However, it resulted in nothing more than replicas... That's when someone came to buy the paintings, knowing they weren't the original..." He claimed, "...It's all my fault. I couldn't pay the price of being famous. As expectations for me rose, it reached a point where I had no choice but to keep making them... I...needed money to further your talents... I ask that you please forgive your cowardly teacher..."

"Please don't...!" Kitagawa-San tried to stop Madarame's ranting but Ann interrupted.

"Hold on... Something doesn't add up." She declared.

"She's right, if you didn't have the original..." I started.

"...how did you make copies of it?" Ann finished.

"I...happened to find a finely detailed photograph of it in an artbook." He explained.

"So you managed to sell copies of a photo of the original? I'm not sure how this works, but... Don't people who buy paintings generally have a keen eye for the fine arts?" Ann pondered with her arms crossed.

"Sounds like a lie if you ask me." I said turning around to where an easel stood with a cloth trapped over it, I stare at it.

"What would you know!?" Madarame yelled pointedly.

"Something just doesn't feel right!" Ann explained. I reached out for the cover of the painting and pulled it away. What I found shocked Ann, Kitagawa-San, and myself, there sat a painting much like the others but this one was different in many ways.

""Sayuru"...?" Kitagawa-San questioned, "This... This is the real "Sayuri"! But you said a moment ago that it was stolen...!"

"That's a replica!" Madarame claimed hurriedly.

"No, it's nothing of the sort! This painting kept me going...it's the reason I made it this far... Sensei... Don't tell me..." Kitagawa-San looked to his mentor with disappointment.

"It's a fake... Yes, a counterfeit! I heard there was a counterfeit spreading around, so I bought it!" His answered were to despret sounding to me.

"You, the artist behind the painting, bought a fake...? Do you really believe is so ignorant as to believe that?" I looked at him with one of my 'demon glares' as Ryuji's dubbed them.

"You're lying, Sensei..." Kitagawa-San looked at his teacher pleasingly, "Please just tell us the truth..."

"You too...?" Madarame pulled out his cellphone, "I've reported you to my private security company!"

"What!?" Ann yelled out.

"I had it set up to deal with some problematic paparazzi, but I nwver thought it'd come in so handy." Madarame smiled calmly.

"And they'll do what? You forget who you're speaking to Madarame..." I warned him.

"You're nothing but a child and a deformed one at that." He responded, I felt that pain in my chest again...the one from when I was younger...

"Lady Ann, Lady Kin, let's run!" Morgana told us with a distressed tone, Ann grabbed my hand and pulled me with her as she ran out of the room. Shortly after Kitagawa-San followed us, I pulled out my phone and started the Meta-Nav up and we slipped into the Metaverse.

5/19, After School, Madarame's Palace...

"Noooooo!" Came Panther's voice as she fell.

"Ngh...!" Kitagawa-San managed to land on his feet, catching Panther in the process, then Mona fell on his head instead of his own feet... even though Mona's supposed to be our veteran thief... Plus aren't cats supposed to land on their feet? Guess we busted a myth while we were hunting treasure...anyways back to the matter at hand, "Gah...!" **(I'm a fan of the original Mythbusters couldn't help myself hehe...*looks away shyly*)**

"..." I didn't say anything after I gracefully landed on my feet in front of Joker.

"Aaagh..! Owwwwww!" Mona exclaimed as he jumped up from the ground.

"I thought I was gonna die..." Panther spoke softly.

"Of course _I_ was the only one to land without a problem..." I muttered looking away from the others.

"...Hey, will you let go already!?" Panther yelled at Kitagawa-San, pushing him away.

"Hrgh...!" Kitagawa-San groaned falling onto his back painfully.

"Oh no! I didn't mean to push him so hard... Are you OK? Wake up!" Panther called to him.

"Who are you all!?" Kitagawa-San asked us after he recovered.

"Calm down, Kitagawa-Kun! It's me!" Panther said, sounding more flustered than he did.

"...Takamaki-San?" He asked her, "That means you three are... I don't recall ever seeing this cat costume before though... What is this place...?"

"We're inside Madarame's heart." Panther explained.

"Inside... Sensei's heart? I'm sorry, Takamaki-San...but are you sure you're feeling OK?" He asked her conserned.

"She ain't lyin'. This is what that bastard truly feels. He's nothin' but a greed-filled money-grubber." Skull told him.

"Interesting choice of words..." I told Skull with a smirk, he just gave me a look, Joker looked at me with a worried expression...guess he could see past the fake happiness I was pushing to keep in my voice.

"Enough of this rubbish!" Kitagawa-San yelled out angrily.

"Rubbish? Wether you like it or not this..." I motioned to the space around us, "this isn't just some figment of your imagination, and we don't have any reason to lie about what this place is."

"Kitagawa-Kun! Didn't it cross your mind that something wasn't right about Madarame!?" Pather asked .

"That's..." Kitagawa-San began.

"You may not want to believe it, but this is another reality as viewed through Madarame's eyes. ...This is his true nature." Panther explained.

"This repulsive world...? Just who are all of you!?" He asked us.

"I guess you could say...we're a group that changes the hearts of rotten crooks." Skull answered.

"If everything you say is true, then the sensei I know doesn't exist..." Kitagawa-San looked down with a sad expression.

"You gotta snap out of it." Skull told him.

"Still...he has kept me safe these past ten years. My gratitude for that won't just disappear."Kitagawa-San told us in reply.

"...Not again!" I groaned.

"You're gonna forgive him!? At this rate you'll...!" Skull started, then Kitagawa-San collapsed to his knees.

"Are you OK?" Panther asked him concerned.

"I'm trying to be rational about this, but my emotions are overwhelming me..." He told her.

"Sorry, but we don't have time to dawdle. The security level's gone through the roof! We need to get out of here, at once!" Mona told us, we all agreed and ran towards the exit as fast as Kitagawa-San could manage. But as we passed the paintings he recognized one, he looked greatly pained. We made our way to the room with that damned statue, but as we made our way to the door way out, Shadows appeared to block our path.

"The exit is right there!" Mona exclaimed, then we turned to where we heard footsteps.

"Who is it!? ...What the-" Panther was caught completely off guard with who we saw, Madarame dressed in gold Japanese style clothes, his hair pulled up into a strange towering rod of some kind, and he wore powder to make his skin a sickly white with a bright blood red rouge(I think it's rouge anyways...might be lipstick not really positive and I'm not about to ask him...).

"Talk about bullshit clothes! First a king, now some kinda shogun!?" Skull questioned angrily.

"Welcome to the museum of the master artist Madarame..." The shadow Madarame greeted joyfully.

"Huh...? Sensei? Is that you?" Kitagawa-San questioned, "That attire..."

"Disqusting." Panther spat out.

"This... This is all one big lie, isn't it...?" Kitagawa-San looked so defeated I didn't know what to say to him.

"My usual ragged attire is nothing but an act. Besides, a famous person living in that shack? I have another home...under a mistress's name, of course." Madarame confessed to us.

"As sick as always I see..." I looked at him with fury, this man diserved no mercy.

"And what would the deformed child know?" He shot back, I felt the pain again and gripped my chest over my heart, grinding my teeth together(albeit lightly).

"This is absurd." I heard Joker declare beside me but everything felt muffled.

"Hahaha! How naive!" Madarame responded.

"If the "Sayuri" was stolen, why was it in the storage room? And if you had the real one, wht make copies!?" Kitagawa-San looked ready to collapse from all the weight of his burdened mind, "If it's really you, Sensei...please tell me!"

"Foolish child. You still don't see? The painting being stolen was just a false rumor I spread! It was all a perfectly calculated staging!" Madarame laughed at the last part, looking proud of himself.

"What do you mean...!?" Kitagawa-San asked him, we all looked at Madarame for the answer.

"Let me see... How does this sound? "I found the real painting, but it can't go public... You can have it for a special price, thought..." Haha! How's that for preferential treatment!? Art snobs'll eat it up, and pay good cash at that!" Madarame stood proud as he spoke, Kitagawa-San fell to the ground not wanting to believe what he was hearing, "The worth of art is purely subjective... Thus, this is a legitimate business transaction! Though I doubt a brat like you would ever come up with such a brilliant scheme!"

"You keep goin' on about money this, money that... No wonder you ended up with this disgusting museum!" Skull yelled.

"You're supposed to be an artist, right!? Aren't you ashamed of plagiarizing other people's work!?" Panther demanded.

"Art is nothing but a tool... A tool to gain money and fame! You helped me greatly as well, Yusuke..." Madarame was defiantly out of his mind.

"God... Posses me off... That's your teacher." Skull directed to Kitagawa-San.

"But what about the people who believe in you...? Who think you're a master artist...!?" Kitagawa-San looked to his mentor with despair.

"...I'll tell you this alone, Yusuke. If you wish to succeed in this world, I'd advise you don't rise against me. Do you believe anyone could find success with my objection holding them down? Hahahahaha! And that girl behind you, the one who thinks she can stand against me just because of her last name, you can hide your face but not that eye...do you really think anyone would believe your word to mine, you a deformed abomination, a demon child?" Madarame ranted on.

"To think I was under the care of this wretched man...!" Kitagawa looked like he was going to be sick, I just clenched my fists in frustration.

"You thought I took you in out of the goodness of my heart? Plucking talented, yet troubled artists allows me to find promising pupils and take their ideas... After all, it's much easier to steal the futures of children who can't fight back." The Shadow revealed. He continued for a little longer before Kitagawa-San couldn't take it anymore, the young man had no choice but to truely open his eyes. We all watched as he thrashed and screamed, bearing the pain of a Persona's awakening until a mask appeared on his face.

"Come, Goemon!" Kitagawa-San called as he ripped the fox shaped mask away, the figure of a man appeared from the blue flame. Kitagawa-San spoke eloquently about Madarame's crimes(honestly I've never heard someone speak of sins so elegantly) and summoned forth a wave of ice frezzing the enemy's with his power, the slightly wicked smile on his face was impressive. Panther, Skull, and Joker helped him destroy the main enemies with Mona providing support, I took care of any strays that tried to attack from behind.

"Laverna, Maeiga!" I bid her and wiped out the last of the stragglers, just as we were about to go for Madarame...Kitagawa-San fell to the ground in exhaustion, allowing the fake artist's Shadow to flee. We made our way to the reception area to let Kitagawa-San rest for a bit.

"You've known for quite some time, haven't you?" Panther asked.

"I'm no fool. Strange people have been coming around for years, and the plagiarism was an everyday affair. But...who would want to admit that the man they owed their life to was doing such terrible things?" Kitagawa-San explained.

"Why didn't you leave, Kitagawa-Kun?" Panther looked at him sadly.

"Well, he is the one who painted the "Sayuri." On top of that, I owe him a great debt..." He responded, he was strangely calm about this.

"Because he raised you..." It wasn't a question, I looked at him with my own sad expression.

"I...never knew my father. I was told my mother raised me by herself, but she died in an accident when I was three. That's when Sensei took me in. I heard he helped my mother while she was still alive." He recounted slowly.

"Heard...?" Panther questioned in confusion.

"To be honest, I don't remember much about my mother either. I did everything I could for Sensei, I thought of him as a father...but he changed. To think he would treat the "Sayuri," the very foundation of his art, like that...!" He was almost in tears as he spoke to us.

"...A lot's happened to you, huh?" Skull looked away depressingly.

"When you mentioned the plagiarism...deep down I knew you were right. That's why I so vehemently denied you... I was simply running from the truth, I'm sorry." Kitagawa-San apologised.

"No worries." Joker told him.

"...Thank you. I'm grateful for the chance to face what I have been denying all this time." He looked truely thankful.

"You're way too serious, man. That's why you're always gettin' stuck in your own head. Look at me! I just go with the flow." And Skull ruins the moment...

"For real." Panther said holding back a laugh.

"What are you going to do now?" Mona asked.

"I don't know..." Kitagawa-San confessed.

"We can't help the fact that Madarame's gone and changed. But...we can change his heart. We'll make him pay for his crimes." Skull assured. Once we finally explained the fact that we were the Phantom Thieves everyone was talking about(sort of...) a large number of Shadows appeared behind us. We had to make a run for it, and leave it to Kitagawa-San to finally realise his clothes had changed right then...anyways we finally left the palace for now.

5/19, After School, Dinner in Shibuya...

We explained everything we could to Kitagawa-San, about the Palaces, Kamoshida, our powers, the Phantom Thieves...

"...I see. And because of this that, this PE teacher's had a change of heart..." He digested the information, "The Phantom Thieves who steal hearts... To think they truly exist."

"Is it hard to believe?" Akira voiced.

"No, I believe you... There's no need for common sense to blind me after seeing a world like that. So your plan with Madarame-Sensei--with Madarame is to force a change of heart, correct? Let me join...as a member of the Phantom Thieves." Kitagawa-San looked to each of us, the others looked at each other in suprise not expecting him to ask that.

"You're sure that's what you want?" I asked him.

"Had I faced reality sooner, this may have been avoided. I must put an end to this for the sake of the others whose futures as artists were robbed, as well. That...is the most civil thing I can do for the man who was...in some manner, my father." He explained to us.

"...Civil, huh." Ann muttered.

"Sounds fine to me. We're gonna deal with Madarame anyways." Ryuji agreed to it.

"He may have a mental shutdown if we screw up. We have ways to prevent that, but they aren't fail-safe. ...Remember how we mentioned this on our way here?" Morgana reminded.

"Madarame is a man who has the art world under his thumb. He has connections to many organizations. If someone like me raised my voice, it'll only be snuffed out. ...We have no option but this." Kitagawa-San insisted.

"That isn't entirely true..." I voiced.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Well I am a Kaida... My parents are pretty influential people despite their preferred living style." I explained, "But, even then I think it would be a last resort to use my family name. Changing his heart is the most sure fire way to make sure he ends up where he belongs..."

"It's a deal then." Morgana agreed.

"We have a new member in the Phantom Thieves now! I hope we get along, Yusuke!" Ann cheered.

"You better not slow us down." Ryuji demanded.

"Says the one who nearly didn't make it out of the last Palace because he fell..." I muttered to myself but Akira heard me and gave me a gentle nug in my left side. I looked over sheepishly and he just gave me a knowing smile while he shook his head.

"I'll do my best." Kitagawa-San assured Ryuji.

"Welcome aboard." Akira agreed.

"Thank you. I ask that you coach me well." Kitagawa-San replied.

"Just don't do anything too reckless and you'll be fine, Kitagawa-San" I told him with a smile as I placed my head in my hand, leaning on it.

"You needn't be so formal with me." He told me.

"Yusuke, then...you can just call me Kin, most people do." I told him.

"Very well, Kin." He nodded.

"Oh, that reminds me... I wonder what's going on with the real Madarame. Yusuke, Kin, and I were in a pretty tight situation..." Ann remembered.

"Actually, I contacted him before we came here. He believes that I continued perusing Takamaki-San and Kin. And, just as you all explained, it appears he knows nothing about his Shadow." Yusuke revealed.

"What did he say...?" Ann questioned.

"He was complaining to the security company how they couldn't even catch a couple of high school girls. However, he's still furious about it, and said that he's going to take legal action against everyone." He explained.

"Pht, I'd like to see him try." I muttered.

"Talk about bein' completely on guard..." Ryuji sighed out.

"Legal action... He's acting way too desperate. Maybe he still has more secrets." Ann contemplated.

"If he were to act, it'd be after the exhibit is over. Any scandal during the show would be his loss." Yusuke told us, we spoke some more on our deadline and the fact that Morgana is in fact a talking cat, eventually we all parted ways.

5/19, Evening, Train to ...

"Kiku..." Akira called to me as we were on the train home.

"Hm?" I looked over to him.

"Are you okay?" He asked me worriedly.

"Why do you ask?" I questioned him.

"The things Madarame said, you've been looking really upset since you got to the Palace..." Akira explained.

"...I'm fine, not anything I'm not used to." I looked away from him with a sad smile.

"Just because you're used to them doesn't mean they stop hurting..." Akira told me.

"..." I couldn't bring myself to look at him, "I...I've heard those words so many times before, Demon Child, Deformed Abomination, Monster... One look at me and most people have the same reaction Ryuji and Morgana did when they saw my eye. They stare, point, whisper...I've gone through that all my life. The only ones who never treated me like that were my parents and my cousin. They were the only ones I could trust...the only ones I could talk to. I...I don't know how to talk to people anymore. I've noticed it, everyone else has so much to say but I have so little. What I do say mostly goes unheard, what does get heard isn't all that important."

"...That's not all true, and sure you don't talk as much as the others but neither do I. And you are not a monster, demon, or abomination. You're a sad lonely girl who's never had a friend to talk to before, just give it time...you'll get better, you'll grow, and you will be heard." Akira used his hand to turn my face towards him and he looked into my eyes as he spoke.

"I don't know if I can...not by myself..." I pulled away.

"Then don't do it by yourself. I'll help and I bet if you tell the others how you feel they'll help too. You're our friend now and friends help each other." Akira promised.

"Friend... So that's what they do, help each other when they need it?" I softly asked, afraid of the answer.

"Real friend do..." Akira assured me.

"Real...friends...?" I tilted my head to the side.

"The people I thought were my friends before I came here...once I had a criminal record they abandoned me. A real friend doesn't do that, they stick with you through it all. Til the end." He explained.

"So that's what my cousin ment..." I muttered softly thinking about the only person I had known who knew a little of what I was going through.

"..." Akira just watched me for the rest of the train ride, but I didn't fail to notice that his hand had made its way to my opposite shoulder and that he had me in a kind of side hug.

 **And that's Chaper 10! Yes, I know, you hate me for the damned cliffhanger. Sorry I don't really do them on purpose, they just kinda happen on their own... Anyways, who's this cousin? is what you're wondering, right? Well...you're free to guess, but i have the right on wether or not I want to confirm or deni those guesses. And also now you know why she's got issues talking and being active, she has small bursts of anger or sadness but mostly she keeps things to herself, she doesn't know _how_ to interact with people amd it kinda messes everything up. Well, see you next chapter!**

 **Shika Kizuka**


	11. Phantom Thief Fox and The Museum of V

**Welcome to the 11th instalment of The Goddess of Thieves and The Master of Thieves! I don't really have anything to say other than thank you for choosing to contiue reading my story this far. With that I'll let you get on with it, here's "Phantom Thief Fox and The Museum of Vanity".**

"Phantom Thief Fox and The Museum of Vanity"

5/20

Our grades were posted today, Akira made it to the top with me right behind him at second place. Ann got a little below the middle, while Ryuji was close to the bottom(even after our study session he still practical failed...*sigh*). The other students whispered as we passed them on our way to class.

"No way! Is he actually smart?" One girl whispered to her friend.

"Maybe he got violent because he studies too much...?" I nearly laughed at that one.

"Dammit... My scores were worse than that delinquent's..." Was definitely my favorite though.

"Getting good scores in school won't erase what he's done." I stopped at that one and looked to the gossiping girl.

"And what would you know of what he's done?" I questioned her, she paled.

"Kiku..." Akira placed a hand on my shoulder, I looked and he shook his head.

"Hmph, just because you can't defend yourself doesn't mean I won't." I told he.

"Just leave it alone." He assured me.

"..." I finally nodded and we made our way to class, but not before I heard the girl whisper one last time.

"He really must be a delinquent if he can tame a demon..." She whispered to the girl next to her who giggled and nodded with a smirk. I felt the hold Akira had on my shoulder tighten slightly. Looking over to him I saw him eyeing the girl with anger in his eyes.

'You won't be angry when she insults you but she insults me and you look ready to murder.' I thought shaking my head with a grateful smile. We made our way into our classroom and to our seats, ready for a day of boring school work...and after school was over we all meet up at the hideout.

5/20, After School, Hideout...

We all meet up with Yusuke and explained how the Nav worked and all the important things about the special inner workings Yusuke needed to know as part of the Phantom Thieves. After that we made our way into Madarame's Palace, with our new member in tow.

5/20, After School, Madarame's Palace...

"Oh yeah. We haven't decided on the new recruit's codename yet." Mona pointed out.

"It has to be "Kitsune." You know with that kitsune mask and everything." Panther replied.

"Hell yeah. That really leaves an impression." Skull backed her up.

"Isn't that kinda hard to say in the middle of battle though?" I asked.

"Are you talking about me?" Yusuke asked.

"What do you want your name over here to be?" Panther asked him.

"I'd say "Da Vinci."" He told us.

"Nope." Skull immediately denied, "Well, you've got that mask like Ann said...and there's that weird tail... All right, you're "Abura-age"!"

"Snrk...!" Mona snorted while trying not to laugh.

"Still to hard to say in battle..." I muttered.

"Very well." Yusuke agreed.

"He's agreed to it!?" Mona yelled out suprised.

"It's decided then: Abura-age." Skull announced.

"Nuh-uh! Not happening! Do you have any ideas, Joker?" Panther asked.

"Fox." Joker answered simply, I smiled at him liking the choice in codename.

"Ohhh, just keep it literal, huh? Sounds good to me." Skull looked pleased with the name.

"What do you think, Fox?" Mona asked.

"It's acceptable." He agreed.

"It's set then. Let's go." Skull said, we all nodded. I quickly told Fox each person's codename so that he would remember them for later use.

"By the way, we should have Joker decide who our starting lineup is from here on out." Mona prompted.

"Starting lineup? You mean the ones who'll be going in first?" Panther questioned.

"Yeah. Now that Fox joined us, it'll be harder to move around as a group. We'll stand out more too. It was hard enough when Panther joined since we already had Demon with us too. Six people would be too conspicuous." Mona explained.

"Mhm! We should probably have four starters and the others can be backup. Backup can follow closely behind the starters so that we can change out when necessary." I formulated in my head.

"And I guess we always gotta have our leader with us, right?" Skull added in understanding.

"Exactly. That's why we'll have Joker choose the remaining three." Mona agreed.

"Right..." Joker nodded and stood in thought, deciding who he would take as the main force.

"We'll still need to be careful inside as well even if we do have more members." I reminded the others, they all nodded.

"Demon, Panther, Fox, you'll be with me. Mona provide us with navigation for now, Skull you'll be with Mona in case something happens." We all nodded to our leader. We quickly made our way inside passing by the painting of Fox on our way, Fox looked uncomfortable to say the least. We finally made our way back up to the Central Garden where the security was still down.

"Sweet, the security's still down!" Skull sounded excited.

"*sigh*Thanks to me and Kin for all our hard work." Panther sighed.

"...What do you mean by that?" Fox asked.

"Nothing you need to worry about." I promised. We entered the next section of the Palace and came to a large gold statue of Madarame that made my skin crawl.

"Ngh... To think there even exists a thing such as this here... It is nothing short of an abomination..." Fox looked like he was in pain as he spoke, not that I blamed him.

"I guess Palace rulers like makin' statues of themselves." Skull noted.

"What was it with Palace rulers and statues? Are they really that full of themselves?" I asked to no one in particular as I looked at the statue looking like I was going to be sick.

"It was the same with Kamoshida. I guess this one's a little better-made though." Panther looked at the statue while remembering the one of Kamoshida.

"I-Is that so...?" Fox asked.

"It makes me wanna hurl..." I said with obvious disgust and hate.

"Let's keep going and forget about this thing." Joker told us, we all nodded and left the terrible statue behind. A little behind it we found another brochure with the second half of the map we needed. We needed to make our way to the Main Treasure Hall if we wanted to secure our route to the Treasure. The next room was blocked off at almost every turn with gates and lasers, making it difficult to maneuver through but we eventually made it with Joker's guidance. It was really strange to jump in and out of the paintings on the wall, it had an surreal feeling to it that was even weirder than the feeling of being in the Metaverse. Madarame wasn't too happy about us 'trespassing' though. We went through a ventilation shaft to find a room with another control room, the only problem was the Shadow guarding it. The enemy couldn't be damaged by Physical or Gun attacks and curse skills didn't work either so I wasn't much help in this battle, I just hung back as the others used their Persona to deal damage, healing the others when necessary. Once the Shadow was gone we made our way inside the control room and found the computer that would raise the gates and disable the lasers. Only we needed to find the password first...we ended up back tracking to find some guards talking about "the numbers for Lord Madarame's feet" what ever that ment. We quickly discussed it but the only one who seemed to figure it out was Joker. Joker lead us back to the gold statue from earlier, where we found a plak with an inscription.

"Here we praise our most holy lord Ichiryusai Madarame, the one ray of hope in this depraved world. He stands alone as his two adept hands paint into the future. None shall ever match his excellence." I read aloud.

"Pffft! He's really puffin' his chest out here, ain't he...?" Skull asked.

"Hold on a moment... Could this be the spot of "Madarame's feet" that the security guard mentioned?" Fox asked.

"It's at his feet... Oh, right! But isn't the password supposed to be a number of some kind?" Panter asked Fox in return.

"Hm, I do believe there are numbers here though..." Fox noted, ""One" day of hope stands "alone" with "two" adept hands. "None" shall match him... That means..."

"The password is 1120." Joker finished.

"Yeah, that must be it!" Mona agreed.

"So we need to put those numbers in the computer..." I said, to which Mona nodded.

"Sweet! Let's head back and shut down the security!" Skull enthusiastically ushered us away. We quickly returned to the control room, input the password, and disabling the lasers that had been in our way earlier. When we made our way through the Treasure hall gallery we had to use paintings again, the first was one of a desert, we heard Madarame's voice again.

"Alas, this world is a desert filled with laymen who cannot understand true beauty...! The slow drain of my skill is inevitable when I am surrounded by such mediocrity..." Came his words.

"...So he's gonna blame the world for his declinin' skill? Heh, that bastard never had any real talent to begin with!" Skull said after processing Madarame's words.

"The gods, even in their dormancy, are worshipped constantly. People gather under shrine gates, offer their money, and return home fully satisfied. Art is practically the same. In the end, it is all just a matter of imagination...!" Madarame's voice said in the next painting of what looked like Mt. Fuji with a

Shrine gate with clouds billowing around at its bottom in the foreground.

"Huh? Even if that's true, that doesn't give you the right to be deceiving people!" Panther said then we walked past the gate to the other side of the painting to. End all the way back to the desert painting, we realized that some of the pathways through the painting lead us back to the first painting, so we needed to be careful. We then tried going under the shrine gate and ended up in some kind of cave or runes I wasn't completely sure and listened to Madarame's stupid ass lecture about how young people didn't know the true value of youth. Then we hopped out of the painting to push a button that made another painting show up on a blank frame. The next painting was of a ship and Madarame's little speeches were really getting to me.

"This man... He acts like he's better than others and yet he treats his pupils and other youths as if they were tools for him to use until they can no longer perform their crafts. To him they are just stepping stones across the vast sea of success." I said while I tried to not dig my nails into my palms. The last painting we ended up in after pushing another button was of the hall of some kind of Japanese castle. I tried to not listen this time so as to not let my anger get the better of me. We continued on and we ended up in a strange completely distorted area. There was so much gold it hurt to look at really, and this place wasn't even on our map. We walked around with out much of a problem until we came to a set of paintings of "Sayuri" but one of them looked off, the one on the right wore red while the one on the left wore blue. It wasn't hard to tell which was the "real" painting(except if your Skull apparently). The painting turned into a gold ball of light and flew away towards one of the archway turning it from blue to a golden yellow. We went through it and found four more paintings, we realized by finding the real painting we could continue on so we chose to search for the real one. I studied the paintings until I reached the third one, this one is the only one with the branch in the background.

"Joker, I think I found the real one!" I called over to him where he was checking the one to my left, he jumped over and studies the painting for a few seconds and nodded.

"This is the real one. Good work, Demon!" Joker said with a smile and a pat on my head.

"Hey! I'm not a kid ya know!" I yelled with a blush on my face.

"Right, sorry!" He replied with a laugh. The painting we found to be the real one did the same as the one before and opened a new path forwards. The next set of paintings had so many variations we had to study them all carefully. The ones with blue were out and the ones with out branches were also out. We came to the final two paintings which had red clothes and the branch in the background.

"Hm...wonder which one it is..." Panther said in thought. We examined both carefully.

"Well...this one has her hair behind her" I said towards the first painting, "while this one has it over her shoulder, so..."

"This one..." Joker answered to the second painting.

"That is correct." Fox told us, then another ball of light appeared then went off who knows where.

"Huh...? Where the shit did it fly off to!?" Skull asked, looking over the edge.

"Hm... Guess we'll just have to find it." I replied, Joker nodded and we continued on until we finally got out of the distorted room. We ended up on the floor we wanted, but Madarame himself was there so we had to be careful to not be seen. There was a hall leading to the left and right and there was the room with the treasure in front of us. We actually watched the treasure room and listened in.

"There it is..." Mona said as we looked at the treasure.

"Doesn't it look a bit hazy?" Panther asked.

"For the time being. Once we send the card and make Madarame aware it'll be stolen, it'll materialize like "Yoohoo!"" Mona explained. **(Laughs at the fact that Yoohoo! is a chocolate drink...)**

"I wonder what form it will take..." Fox contimaplated.

"Who knows? Bet it's something like a self-portrait." Skull replied.

"Hm..." I was lost in my own thoughts, something didn't sit right with me and it had to do with the "Sayuri" painting, I just didn't know what yet.

"The source of what distorted Madarame's reality this much..." Fox contemplated again.

"So, what now? Think it's safe to say we got our route set?" Skull asked.

"We know where the Treasure is but...how are we going to get to it? I mean there are lasers and guards everywhere..." I pounted out to the others.

"We should check out the rest of the floor..."Joker decided.

"Hm..." I continued to look into the Treasure hall for a minute before following, if I was right I might have a plan to get the Treasure. We found another control room that showed the Treasure's room. There was a computer there, luckily it didn't need a password, but we couldn't turn the lasers off. Madarame made sure only he could access that function... We could however get rid of the shutters opening up a hallway I saw earlier. Next we tried turning the power off but that did nothing to the lasers it did suprise Madarame though.

"Wh-what is the meaning of this!?" He yelled out.

"I-I am not sure! It seems we have lost power... The backup generators should bring it up again in no time!" Then the lights returned. To bad Madarame sent some Shadows to check the control room but we quickly got rid of them and headed to the now open hallway we passed earlier. We eventually ended up in a mechanical room for hanging the paintings, we climbed up a latter, and jumped over a few boards and found ourselves above the Treasure.

"Oh, look! There aren't any lasers above it!" Panther pointed out.

"This is quite a large hole in their security...but what do we do? Jump down to retrieve it?" Fox asked.

"And what, get stuck down there? You'd never get back out!" I said a little harsher than I ment to as I looked up, "Mona you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Yes, look up!" Mona instructed the others.

"A crane with a hook..." Fox stated.

"I saw the controls back in the other room." I told them, we went back to the room and found the lever. Joker tested it out quickly before he had to bring it back up before any of the enemy saw it.

"So I was right..." I said with a smirk.

"What do you mean?" Panther asked.

"We can use the crane to get to the treasure." I answered simply.

"Do you plan on descending on the hook? Would they not spot you the moment you were lowered down?" Fox asked me.

"Not me, I'm not skilled enough to do that, that's Mona's job. And not necessarily, there's something that will make it hard for the enemy to see." I said proudly.

"The darkness!" Joker realized.

"Exactly! That's our Joker!" Mona praised.

"Oh right... We were able to turn the lights off over in that other control room!" Panther realized.

"Only for a few seconds though. There wouldn't be enough time to make it all the way here." Fox reminded.

"That's why we split up and work together!" I said with a smile, "One of us turns off the power, one lowers the crane, and Mona grabs the Treasure."

"It's the only plan we've got..." Joker said with a shrug.

"We would go back for now." Mona told us, we all nodded and made our way back to the real world. We all headed home to rest up for the time being.

"I'm home!" I called as I entered my house.

"Welcome home, sweetheart!" Mom called back, I walked into the kitchen to find my mom working on something.

"New recipe?" I questioned.

"You know it! How was school?" My mom replied.

"Second place on the exams!" I smiled.

"Not first place?" My mom teased.

"Not this time, Akira beat me there." I replies with a laugh.

"Is that the boy you've been telling me and your father about?" Mom asked.

"Yup, well, him and Ryuji are the two boys I've told you about, Ann's the girl. Oh, and I made a new friend yesterday too. You remember Yusuke Kitagawa, right?" Remembering I hadn't told them about the newest addition to my group of friends.

"Isn't he Madarame's pupil?" Mom stopped working for a minute.

"Mhm, he came up to Ann and me a few days ago about being models for his art, just yesterday he became a friend of ours." I explained.

"That's nice, poor boy was always a strange one...never remembered him having any friends. His poor mother would have been sad to see him like that." My mom looked sad.

"You knew his mom?" I tilted my head.

"I did, sweet, kind young woman she was. It was sad when she passed away, if Madarame hadn't taken him in I would have considered it myself. She was actually a very good friend of mine." Mom recounted.

"He doesn't really remember her, it kind of sad." I propped my head up with my hand.

"Maybe you should invite him over and I could show him some pictures I have. You should really invite them all over so me and your father can meet them." She proposed.

"Invite them over...?" I asked unsure.

"Honey, I know you're still not used to having friends but you've got to take chances if you want to keep going in life." Mom patted my head soothingly.

"I know. I'm just still getting used to the concept that I have people who aren't you, dad, or my cousin that I can just spend time with." I looked down then remembered something, "Speaking of my cousin...I need to call him about my friends."

"You go do that, I'll call when dinners ready!" My mom smiled kindly.

"Thanks mom!" I smiled back and headed to my room to change then grabbed my phone and called my cousin, I waited until he picked up before speaking.

 **Kiku will not use her cousin's real name here because I don't want to give his identity away just yet.**

Kiku:"Hey 'old man', you free?"

I teased him with my nickname for him, hey not my fault his hair's more silver than our grandpa himself.

Old Man:"Kiku, what's up?"

Came my cousin's deep male voice, he did always have a deeper voice since he hit puberty.

Kiku:"Seeing how my dear cousin is and updating him on a major achievement!"

Old Man:"I'm fine, but what's this major achievement?"

Kiku:"I managed to make not one but four friends in the past month!"

Old Man:"That's great! What are they like?"

Kiku:"Will first there's Akira, he was my first friend, he's a transfer student like me. He kind of reminds me of you actually. He's kind of quite but he always seems to know how to fix any problem that comes him way, he's kind of the leader of our little group I guess you could say. He's the first person who didn't go nuts after seeing my eye either..."

I smiled as I talked to my cousin.

Old Man:"He sounds cool."

Kiku:"Yeah, then there's Ryuji. He's kind of an idiot sometimes and most people only see him as a juvenile delinquent. But he's really a bigger softy that people give him credit for...I can tell. Next is Ann, her and Akira are both in my class and she's actually a part-time model. She's kind of well...weird sometimes, but she's someone you can count on in a pinch when you need her."

Old Man:"They sound like good people."

Kiku:"Mhm, and finally there's Yusuke. He's still a newer friend so I don't know all that much about him still but he's okay, weird...but okay."

Old Man:"They all sound like some cool friends."

Kiku:"Yeah...hey Cous?"

Old Man:"Yeah Kiku?"

Kiku:"I think I finally get what you were talking about a few years ago. You know, when you were talking about your friends? It's really nice...having people who accept you and...you know...stick with you."

Old Man:"Yeah, it's the best feeling when you've been alone for so long, huh?"

Kiku:"Yeah..."

I looked over to a picture of me and him sitting on my nightstand.

Kiku:"I miss you cous..."

I confessed and smiled softly.

Old Man:"I miss you, too. How about sometime in the summer I come for a visit?"

Kiku:"I'd like that. I could even introduce you to Akira and the others!"

Old Man:"Who knows maybe I can round up the team and they can meet you too."

Kiku:"Yeah, then we can all hang out. Haha!"

I couldn't wait for it. After talking a bit more with my dear cousin over the phone I heard my mom call for me and we said our goodbyes, promising to keep the other posted on any new developments in the others lives.

 **And that's the chapter! Questions? Comments? Concerns? PM me or leave a review on this story and I'll answer them here at the end of the next chapter or I'll PM you depending on the content of the message. I don't want to spoil the extra story content for anyone so I'm not going to give anything I feel will do that away. Although I will tell you I'm planning to add another Palace into the story either once Mikoto or Futaba joins the team, I'm not sure which one yet... Well, I'll see you in the next chapter!**

 **Shika Kizuka**


	12. Bad News and Lost Truths

**Happy Birthday to me! since it was my birthday today I decided to add another chapter to one of my stories to celebrate and the lucky story was this one because I actually finished another chapter for it while the others I'm still working on theirs. Anyways here's Chapter 12, have some cake to celabrate with me for turning 20!**

"Bad News and Lost Truths"

5/21

Today was relatively normal, Akira had decided to wait a few days to rest and prepare before we went after the Treasure. After school I decided to head to Shibuya, Akira had somethings to do for Phantom Theif business so he came along. When we go off the train we headed to Central Street through the square and stopped by the bookstore. Browsing the books I found a few study guides I thought might help Ryuji and Ann improve on their grades along with a few books I could read in my spare time. Akira must have found some too because we both came out with one bag each full of books. Akira told me he had to make a stop that was down an alley but that he thought it would be better if I didn't come along. I figured he was worried about the possibility of someone bad lurking in the alley and told him I'd wait for him in the arcade near by. I played a few games in the arcade and even won a cute set phone accessories from one of the claw machines then my phone went off, I looked to see the caller ID to find my cousin calling.

Kiku:"Hey?"

Old Man:"Hey, sorry if I'm calling at a bad time."

Kiku:"Nah, I'm just waiting for one of my friends to finish up something they needed to do. I was more suprised by the fact that you're calling even though we just talked yesterday."

Old Man:"Yeah well, I figured this was something you'd want to hear."

Kiku:"Really, what?"

Old Man:"It's about Uncle Junichiro."

I frowned at his implication. He could only mean the uncle we shared, there was only one man my cousin would use that tone for when talking to me...the tone of worry.

Kiku:"What's he done now?"

I asked slight bitterness in my voice.

Old Man:"He found out about how you all moved."

I felt my nails start to dig into my palm.

Kiku:"Does he know where?"

Old Man:"He knows the general area but not the exact address and he doesn't know the school you go to."

Kiku:"But he'll come anyways...he'll find out no matter what it takes..."

I felt ready to scream.

Old Man:"Hey, it'll be okay. You won't have to go through that again. Even if I have to come down there before summer, I will not let him do anything to you again."

Kiku:"Yeah... Hey Cous?"

Old Man:"Yeah Kiku?"

Kiku:"Would it be weak of me to admit that I'm scared...?"

I bit down lightly on my bottom lip as I waited for his answer.

Old Man:"To others maybe...to me I think that you're stronger if you can admit that you're hurting to someone else."

Kiku:"Thanks..."

I smiled gratefully to him.

Old Man:"No problem."

Kiku:"Hey..."

Old Man:"Hm?"

Kiku:"Love you cous..."

Old Man:"Love you too. I'll talk to you later, ok?"

Kiku:"M'kay...bye."

I heard him hang up the phone before I hung up myself and put my phone away. I hugged my arms and started to replay the news I just received, chewing at my bottom lip worriedly.

"Kiku!" I hear Akira call, looking up a see him walk over to where I stood.

"Akira..." I greeted with a small uncertain smile.

"Somethings wrong..." He immediately realised and I sighed.

"Just got some news I wish I hadn't is all." I tried to play it off.

"What happened?" He questioned.

"..." I looked away trying to think of sonething to distract him from my problem.

"Kiku..." He looked at me firmly with a representing expression.

"I really don't want to talk about it..." I told him looking at him with a pleading look, "...at least not yet. I'm still trying to process it myself."

"*sigh*Alright, but you'll tell me eventually right?" He looked at me with understanding.

"I promise." I smiled relieved and grateful that he was giving me my space.

"Why don't we do something to get your mind off it for now? I think I remember a movie theater not far from here..." Akira offered.

"Sounds like a good plan." I smiled so we went to the movie theater and watched 'The Cake Knight Rises' before we made our way the Leblanc. The bell above the door rang as we opened the door and walked in laughing about something from the movie.

"Hello, Sakura-San!" I called as I sat at the counter.

"Hey, what can I get for ya?" He greeted back and Akira sat down next to me.

"The curry and house blend, please!" I responded, Sakura-San nodded and made two plates of curry and two cups of his house blend of coffee. Akira and I spent some more time at Leblanc until it got late, I said my goodbyes to Sakura-San, and Akira walked me home after insisting it wasn't right if he let me walk home in the dark by myself. Once I got home I waved Akira goodbye and went up to my room to get ready to sleep. In all that time the thought of my uncle had slipped my mind completely and I fell asleep without being pleaged by the haunting thoughts of what was to come in a few short months.

5/22

Since it was Sunday and we weren't going back into the Palace until the 26th Ann thought we should have some 'girl time'. So there I was waiting for her to arrive at the meeting place scrolling through things on my phone.

"Kin!" I heard Ann's voice call, looking up from my phone I scanned the crowd until I saw her walking towards me with a wave.

"Ann!" I gave a small wave back amd made my way to her.

"Ready to go shopping?" She asked me when we met in the middle.

"As ready as I'll ever be." I answered with a hesitant look. I've never really gone shopping with a friend before so this was all new to me.

"Come on, it'll be fun." Ann assured me as she grabbed my hand and pulled me along. We ended up going to, I think, twenty different stores by the time we decided to go to the dinner for a rest.

"Wasn't that fun?" Ann asked cheerfully as we waited for the waitress to come back with our drinks.

"I guess, but did you really have to take pictures of every outfit I tried on?" I asked back.

"But they all looked so good on you!" Ann insisted.

"If you say so..." I rolled my eyes a little.

"You know you've been better recently..." Ann suddenly spoke.

"Better at what?" I tilted my head to the side.

"Better at talking to everyone. It's not as much as most people but you're defiantly slowly talking more." Ann explained.

"Yeah, guess talking with Akira's been helping me open up little by little. I still have a long way to go though." I looked off with a frown.

"You'll get there and we'll all help! You're not alone anymore after all." Ann promised.

"Thanks, Ann." I smiled gratefully.

"Your my friend, so I'll always help you when you need it." She smiled back.

"Thanks..." The waitress came with our drinks then took our orders and left again. We spent a while longer at the dinner before it was getting dark and we needed to get home. I found that I really was talking more that I used to, and I have my friends to thank for it.

5/25

Today was the day we would make plans to send the calling card...and go figure the first person we'd run into in the morning was Niijima-San.

"We meet again." She greeted as she came to stand a little ways from Akira.

"It appears you're lying low lately. What's with the change?" Her voice filled with curiousity.

"I'm acting the same as usual..." Akira responded without showing any emotion on his face.

"I don't see any change in his behavior." I added moodily, I really didn't like how she was treating Akira.

"Really... Is it just my imagination then?" Niijima-San pondered.

"Anyhow... I wish the culprit would come forward soon... It's absurd to pretend I can do the police's job... I wish he considered my feelings before asking me this." Niijima-San muttered most of the last parts to herself. I started to wonder why the principal would want to know the culprit so badly... Something wasn't quite right about all this but I didnt know what. But I didn't have to much time to ponder it as the train arrived for school.

5/25, After School, Hideout...

We all met up at the Accessway to discuss the calling card.

"We can now take him down, yes?" Yusuke questioned.

"Madarame's going to be a changed man. There won't be any way to revert it, though. Are you sure you're OK with that?" Morgana masked him seriously.

"I have thought it over carefully, and I cannot think of a future in which he does not pay his dues. He has preyed not only on the art world, but on countless talents...so I humbly request your help." Yusuke looked at us calmly.

"All right." Akira answered his request simply.

"I apologize for making you do this..." Yusuke bowed his head to us.

"Not at all. We just didn't want to impose if you weren't feeling up to it, Yusuke. But if you're already determined to do it, then there's nothing more for us to say." Ann explained to him.

"If I recall, our next step is sending a "calling card," correct? What a suave maneuver." He noted.

"It's not about acting cool. The calling card is a way to trigger a change in his cognition." Morgana sort of scolded the artist.

"A change in cognition... That reminds me, you went through some trouble regarding that before..." Yusuke remembered.

"Ah, You must be talking about when we forced open that security gate in the courtyard." Morgana realized.

"The Palace is a cognitive world, so changing its ruler's cognition changes the topography. ...I think!" Ann tried to explain.

"*sigh* By changing how a Palace's ruler in the real world thinks of the world around them, you can change how they see their surroundings. By changing how they see their surroundings you inevitably change the way their Palace, which is a world made of their cognitions and views of the world around them, is laid out. Such as the door Madarame once saw as unopenable being opened before his eyes, thus allowing us to force him to change his view of that door and seeing it as an opened door he once believe couldn't be opened by any but himself." I made my own explaination then noticed everyone staring at me with slightly wide eyes, "What?"

"How come you can get all this Palace stuff so easily?" Ryuji asked in confusion.

"It not really that hard. Morgana just tends to use really big complicated words when he's explaining thing, which makes it hard for everyone else to understand." I shrugged then looked to the cat in question, "No offense, Morgana."

"None taken, Lady Kin. You seem to learn quickly and efficiently, perhaps it would be easier for you to explain any concepts of the Metaverse that anyone doesn't understand from now on." Morgana decided then looked to Akira for his thoughts.

"If she wants to she can." Akira looked to me with a smile.

"Actually, may I ask a truly basic question? You continue to mention cognition quite readily... But why does this world formed from materialized cognitions even exist to begin with?" Yusuke pondered, "Don't tell me... Has it always existed, while we go about our daily lives completely oblivious?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure. At the very least, I know it existed before the Kamoshida incident...but that's all." Morgana admitted.

"I see..." Yusuke contimaplated.

"You know it would make sense...that if the Metaverse is a world of human desires and cognitions...that it would have existed for as long as humans have lived. Or perhaps for as long as humans have believed that such a world could exist. But there's no way of really knowing how long the Metaverse has existed for since we've only known of its existence for such a short time." I theorized.

"Dude, when did you start taking all smart and shit?" Ryuji asked me with confusion.

"I did score second on our exams, you know?" I huffed and looked away from all of them.

"Let's just focus on taking care of Madarame." Akira stepped in.

"Right!" Ann agreed.

"A calling card, Hm? Will he take it seriously?" Yusuke wondered, "He is famous, after all... He has often received slanderous letters till now, as well."

"He'll know best whether the crime written on it is for real or not." Ryuji told him.

"Wait. Are you going to write it again, Ryuji? That last one was questionable at best..." Morgana voiced his concerns.

"You should do it then, Yusuke! Make it really artistic and stuff!" Ann decided.

"No. It'll end up with him figuring it out. He knows my drawing and writing styles all to well." Yusuke shook his head.

"Oh, then I'll think it up, and you make it cooler!" Ryuji jumped up from the ground he was sitting on excitedly.

"Designing a calling card, hm... Interesting. It shall become proof that the Phantom Thieves do exist." Yusuke smiled.

"It's decided then!" Ryuji declared.

"Hm... You can do it at my house." I offered.

"Wouldn't your parents get suspicious of us?" Ryuji questioned.

"They're not going to be home til late tonight and even if they did get home early they won't be too suprised. I have told them about you guys, after all." I shrugged.

"You told them about us?" Ann questioned.

"Well yeah, you guys are my first friends. They would have noticed something was up if I didn't tell them about you." I explained.

"Then your house it is, can't really do it at Yusuke's and I don't know how my mom would react if we did it at mine." Ryuji nodded.

"Great! All that's left is to make the Treasure ours!" Morgana yelled out, "You guys better come fully prepared!"

"Let's go!" I led the way for Ryuji and Yusuke to my house. We spent a good time working on deciding on the words to use for the calling card and Ryuji and Yusuke worked on fixing up the logo for the Phantom Thieves. Once we were done I kept the cards we made with me, Yusuke couldn't keep them with him and I didn't trust Ryuji with any of them in case someone saw him as suspicious, no offense to him. Ryuji ended up changing the chat icon for our group chats and sent a message to Ann and Akira in the group chat to let them know. Finally tomorrow was the big day...

5/26

We all meet up after school and went to the exhibit, Morgana had spread the calling cards around descreatly and we waited for Madarame to get one of the cards. Yusuke stood by Madarame's side while the rest of us watched from afar as a staff member brought ome of the cards to Madarame's attention.

"Pardon me, sir. There's a matter we need to notify you about..." The staff member interupted the scheming artist.

"Please excuse me for a moment." Madarame told the crowd of reporters he had been talking to before going off to the side, "What is it...?"

"We found this outside..." The staff member holding out to him a black, red, and white card.

"A letter?" Madarame questioned.

"It's...uh..." The staff member struggled to explain before Madarame took the card from him to read it.

Sir Ichiryusai Madarame, a great sinner of vanity whose talent has been exhausted. You are an arrest who uses his authority to shamelessly steal the idea's of his pupils. We have decided to make you confess all your crimes with your own mouth. We will take your distorted desires without fail.

From, The Kodokuna ōkami(The Phantom Thieves)

"Whose doing is this...!?" Madarame demanded, crushing the card with his hands.

"We don't know! The same letter has been posted everywhere..." The staff member answered.

"What about the security cameras!?" Madarame asked.

"There were no signs of the culprit... All we saw was a cat in the recordings..." The man explained.

"Remove these at once!" Madarame yelled out. The staff member ran off to try and get rid of all the cards after asking about the media which made Madarame angry at him. I felt the world shift and there stood Madarame's Shadow.

"It's those damn brats' doing, isn't it? Well, it means nothing... They'll only be able to do as they please until this exhibit is over..." The Shadow claimed. Yusuke walked over to us to come firm that the card worked. We all made our way into the Palace...

5/26, After school, Madarame's Palace...

When we entered the Palace we could feel how tense the air had become.

"Demon, Fox, Mona. You're with me for any fights we might get into." Joker ordered, we all nodded with serious looked on our faces, once we were sure we were ready to proceed we made our way to the top of the museum.

"It's finally time..." Skull noted.

"There will be no turning back once we begin the operation." Fox reminded us.

"And if worst comes to worst, we might have to fight..." Panther added.

"That's right. Are you ready, Joker?" Mona asked our leader.

"Ready as I'll ever be." Came his response.

"Then let's go!" I smirked.

"Everyone to your positions!" Mona calles and we all split up to perform our respective tasks. Skull and Panther would work on shutting the power off. Fox tied Mona to the crane hook and waited to give the signal. Joker would handle the lever and I would keep an eye on Mona when he dropped down and see how the enemy reacted when the power came back on.

"Wait, where's Mona and Demon?" I heard Panther ask. Then the others climbed up and jumped over to where I crouched and Mona was just coming back up holding the Treasure in his grasp.

"Hehehe! How's that for a skilled plan?" Mona asked.

"That was amazin', Mona!" Skull praised, forgetting I helped come up with the plan too. I was to busy watching below to care.

"Lord Madarame! Th-The piece is gone!" I heard one of the security guards yell out.

"Ngh... How dare those vermin... But now we'll corner them like the rats they are! Lock all the doors at once! They have nowhere to run!" Shadow Madarame yelled while the others talked about what the Treasure is.

"Um, guys now really isn't the time for this, we need to run." I called to them, we tried the door we came through but it wouldn't budge and the guards had heard Joker slam at the door, none of the others knew of another escape route but luckily I had thought of one the last time we were in here.

"Quick this way! I know another way out." I pointed back the way we came from a few seconds ago and we went back towards the crane and I pointed to the window to our right, "Over there, the window!" We made it to the window and climbed through it leading us to the outside of the building. But there was no time for stopping in case the guards caught up to us. We managed to make out way down and through a gateway until we ended up in the courtyard again. This is when Mona decided to check out the Treasure now of all times and unwrapped the painting which was a fake.

"Meddlesome vermin. Is this what you're looking for?" Madarame asked us as one of his guards held a gold framed painting.

"What nonsense that you used a mousetrap on me!" Mona glared.

"So you had a fake prepped, huh!?" Ryuji questioned.

"Counterfeita are accepted in the world of Japanese art." Madarame countered.

"What made you change like this!? Is it because you became famous!? Camt you understand how much it pains me to inquire about the crimes of my foster father!?" Fox demanded.

"...Now that I think back, the only reason I took you in was due to my ties with your mother. That woman never lost her passion for painting even after her husband died. Her skills and talents were quite astonishing... That's why I decided to look after her. Your mother and all the artwork she created-they're all MY works of art!" Madarame had a crazed look in his eye.

"How low can you sink...?" Panther asked him.

"So I was right..." I gritted out.

"Huh?" Madarame looked to me.

"I thought something wasn't right about all this. The painting the guards holding...it's the "Sayuri" isn't it?" I continued, glaring at Madarame with my fists clenched.

"I suppose I can grant you a gift before you die-a glimpse of the genuine "Sayuri"...!" Madarame had the guard hold the painting up and unlike the "Sayuri" we had come to know thus one had the woman holding a baby in her arms looking at the baby lovingly.

"That's...the real "Sayuri"...? This can't be...!" Fox looked away confused.

"It's what you think it is Yusuke...your mom..." I confirmed.

"This was painted by your mother. It's a portrait of herself. A woman who knew her death was coming painted her last wishes, for the son she would leave behind. That is the truth behind the mystery of "Sayuri"'s expression!" Madarame directed at Yusuke.

"You stole something THAT personal...!?" Skull asked disgusted.

"I knew at first glance. I knew it'd be a huge success, if I added a touch to the painting and announced it under my name!" Madarame told us.

"But the baby in the picture... Why did you paint over it...?" Fox questioned.

"...It was all to stage it. If the baby is erased, the reason for the woman's expression will become a mystery...! That is what the general public is drawn to! Each of those parasitic critics wrote the same thing!" Madarame explained.

"I always felt something was off about all this... Now I know what it is. If you really treasured that painting, you wouldnt even think about replicating it for profit! You dont love art at all!" Panther yelled.

"Though you have a real Treasure, your true skills are nothing more than those scribbles on that fake!" Mona demanded.

"You...your the reason she died...aren't you Madarame?" I asked him full of furry.

"Wait what?" Skull looked at me in disbelif.

"She just so happened to have a seizure in front of me. That's when a thought crossed my mind... If I don't call for help and leave her be, I could gain her painting without any strings attached." Madarame confessed.

"No... You let her die!?" Panther looked at he with horror in her eyes.

"She was physically weak. No one would doubt if she just dropped dead because of a seizure. Above all, Yusuke, didn't you think it was odd-that I discovered your talent when you were only three?" Madarame questioned, "The reason why I kept you around was to keep you from realizing the truth behind "Sayuri.""

"You killed her...!" Fox gritted his teeth.

"I didn't think you could sink any lower...and yet you managed to make me loathe you even more than I already did!" I growled.

"And what does the deformed monster know?" Madarame questioned.

"Monster? I'm the monster here? You killed a woman for your own personal gain! If I'm a demon and a monster then your nothing but a worthless sinner from the depths of hell!" I yelled out now holding my scythe and gripping the handle tightly.

"I thank you, Madarame...! Every reason for me to forgive you has disappeared without a trace at this very moment! You aren't some rotten artist... You're a despicable fiend who wears the skin of an artist!" Fox told Madarame with furry in his voice.

"All you good-for-nothings...! Barging into my museum and doing whatever the hell you want... Those who have connections make the rules; those that don't, follow them. Not to mention, the value of art is all subjective! I make the rules in the art scene! I am the supreme being! I am the god of the art world!" Madarame claimed.

"This isn't good. Get back!" Mona warned and we all jumped back and readied our weapons as Madarame's Shadow changed into a collection of four very ugly paintings.

"You used others for your own despicable desires, Madarame... You aren't even worth the art you "create"...!" Fox told the Shadow.

"Ichiryusai Madarame... Sinner of Vanity... For the lives you have ruined I will do everything in my power to make you pay!" I raised my scythe at the ready and waited for my orders.

"Joker, don't lose focus! There's no telling what he'll try!" Mona warned our leader.

"Mona attack the left eye, Fox you go for the right." Joker ordered them then turned to me, "Demon you take the mouth while I go for the nose."

"Got it!" I rushed forward and slashed at the mouth with my blade but the mouth seemed to absorb my attack. The others didn't seem to have this problem with physical attacks but with elemental attacks it was different. Mona had to heal us a couple of times through out our attack but we managed to beat the paintings down one after the other. Once we did they melted into a black puddle that turned into Madarame's Shadow.

"Madarame's out!" Mona yelled and we surrounded the Shadow for an all out attack.

"Dammit... I'm the great Madarame... The Madarame who gathers a full crowd every time he opens an exhibit! I'm not someone that worthless brats like you are allowed to defy...!" Madarame claimed.

"You still have the nerve to say such things!? You will fully taste the wrath of those who were preyed upon by you!" Fox declared before Joker gave the signal to move in.

We moved in quickly cutting at him with our weapons.

"Now's our chance! Attack the main body!" Mona advised.

"Demon!" Joker yelled out.

"You got it!" I called back and decides to try out a new skill I'd gained a while ago, "Laverna, Hell Fire!" **(Hell Fire is a Laverna skill only. It is not a real Persona Skill, it's one I made up for Laverna.)**

Blue cursed flames surrounded Madarame and burned him with the anger of those who have suffered from his sins. We all continued to attack Madarame until he decided to transform into those paintings again.

"Grrr..impertinent brats...! It seems you need a good whipping to make you understand!" He declared. We fought against the paintings now knowing just what each was resilient to bit He used a new attack that covered me in paint.

"What is this attack!? There has to be more than just our color changing! We should be cautious!" Mona warned as I was now black with the paint. When another of the paintings attacked I ended up knocked down and became the main focus of attacks. The others worked to keep me from fainting and eventually the paint wore off. Not taking any chances we made quick work of the paintings to get to the main body to finish him off.

"Dammit...Dammit... Stop it you brats, or else...!" Madarame started.

"Or else what? There's nothing you can do now...you are powerless." I told him with a cold look before we finished him off with one more attack. Fox came to stand before his former teacher who still clung to his Treasure. Even though he was beat he still tried to justify his actions and made excuses. Then he told us something strange.

"What-What about the other one though? The one with the black mask?" Madarame questioned us.

"Who...?" Joker asked.

"A black mask? Wait, who's he talking about...?" Panther looked to us confused.

"It can't be... There was another intruder besides us within this Palace...!?" Mona realized just as the Palace started to collapse, Mona transformed into his car form and we all quickly piled in. Yusuke followed behind after he grabbed the Treasure and we races out just before it collapsed.

5/26, After School, outside Madarame's Shack...

"The destination has been deleted." Came the Metaverse Navigator's usual line.

"It would be bad if people started getting suspicious of us. We should leave at once." Morgana advised.

"Yusuke, c'mon." Ryuji told Yusuke who was kinda out of it.

"Right... Goodbye, Sensei." We're Yusuke's final words before we left towards our hideout.

"I guess the mission was a success. All that's left is to see if he had a change of heart or not." Ryuji noted before taking a drink of his canned coffee, "Ugh, so bitter... Why'd you get it black?"

"The "Sayuri"..." Yusuke muttered looking at the painting in his hand.

"You're not gonna get all teary-eyed and say stuff like "Mom...!" are you?" Ryuji looked at him worriedly.

"To think that this painting was the source of Madarame's distorted desires. The only saving grace is that my mother won't know of what transpired..." Yusuke gave a small smile.

"The genuine painting at his atelier has been altered, after all... Ironic as it may be, this one is her true self-portrait now." Morgana told us.

"...It's a wonderful painting. And...although it took some time, it's in your hands now, Yusuke." Ann spoke as she leaned back against the railing.

"...I'm thankful for it. However, its for this painting to be acknowledged by society anymore..." Yusuke noted.

"That's a shame." Akira said from my left.

"Indeed..." Yusuke agreed, "I must inherit my mother's wishes and improve myself even further. So this is my mother... There's no way that I would remember her face clearly... But I was right about the rush of emotion I felt when I saw this painting."

We eventually discussed with Yusuke wether or not he wanted to continue as one of our group. Once he was a permanent member we decided we need to wait for now til Madarame had his change of heart. Plus there was the person in the black mask we needed to worry about too... With all this there was nothing to do but wait.

 **And there you have it! I'm so cruel to Kiku I just _had_ to give her a cruel hateful uncle who wants to ruin her life... Luckily she's got Akira and the gang! With the Phantom Theives on her side there's no need to worry about her too much. But I will tell you that I'll probably be putting that extra Palace in some time after Futaba joins so look forward to it! See you all next chapter and go have some Ice Cream it's been WAY too hot this summer!**

 **Shika Kizuka**


	13. Madarame's Confession

**Hello readers! Thank you to all thise who have been patiantly waiting for the next chapter and for those of you just joining us thank you for reading. Before I let you continue to the story I just want to remind you critics out there that I am a 20 year-old, Dyslexic American. I am a human being who makes mistakes and I am in no way perfect nor do I want to be. As I like to say I am perfectly imperfect and if you can't handle that then I am sorry to say that I don't really care. I ask that you do not critisize me for my lack of spelling and grammer, whether it be my fault or my phone's, and that you respect me as I try to respect everyone who comments(good or bad). Also I chamged the cover for this story with a picture of what Kiku would roughly look like, I used an app called Anime Boutique. Now, with that out of the way here is Chapter 13. Happy Halloween and Good readings!**

"Madarame's Confession"

Unknown dark place...

 _"You have expelled one who was stained in vanity. You are one step closer to your rehabilitation. It's a delightful thing indeed." I heard an unfamiliar voice in darkness._ _"Our master is pleased. You should be honored, inmate." A female voice spoke up this time._ _"However, that man's remarks are concerning. It seems another has made their way into the Metaverse." The deep, unsettling male voice came again. Who were these voices, who were they talking to?_ _"Who could it be?" A familiar voice questioned._ _'Akira?' I wondered as I looked around me but couldn't see where the voices were coming from. They seemed to come from nowhere yet everywhere._ _"That is beyond my knowledge... But your rehabilitation is progressing smoothly. ...That is for certain. May the devotion to your rehabilitation grow even deeper. ...I have high hopes for you." The unfamiliar male voice answered Akira._ _'Where am I? Why am I hearing this?' I wondered as I moved forward blindly and listened as the voices seemed to disappear and a strange card appeared before me._ _"A card?!" I recognised the card as something I'd found a few years ago, a tarot card. The card before me was 'The Fool' card also known as the number 0. I tried to reach for it but it let off a blinding white light and I jolted awake._

5/27, Early Morning...

"What the hell was that?" I questioned to the empty room around me. I looked over to the bedside table to where my phone lay along with one other important item. I fully sat up and grabbed said item, a deck of tarot cards, and flipped up the first blue card. **(P3/P4 tarot cards because I like those ones.)**

"The Fool..." I looked down at the card and remembered the strange cards I had seen around my friends since Ann joined the team, "Akira..."

I looked at the card until my alarm went off and I had to get ready for school. I finished getting dressed and pulled my hair back, placing the hair clip that held back my bangs in its proper spot before looking at myself in the mirror. I looked at my unnatural gold eye which seemed to have flecks of teal blues scattered about and my pale teal blue eye with barely visible gold flecks. If it wasn't for my red hair I would almost say it's as if I was the halves of two reflections made into one. I finally shook myself from my thoughts as I reminded myself I needed to get to school. I grabbed my bag and headed out of my house to meet up with Akira. It was a normal day with nothing strange going on. I took the time to look closer at the cards I had been seeing for days and realised that they were all different tarot cards. Not really knowing what to do with this information I decided to leave it alone for now. I instead focused on school and the, hopefully, up and coming change of heart. All members of the Kodokuna ōkami waited as patiently as possible for the next few days to pass.

6/4

Tomorrow was the day we had been waiting for and strange things have happened, Niijima-San seemed to have been following Akira and I around a lot these last few days and yesterday Kawakami-San decided to randomly change her class plans. I figured that last one was Akira's doing because Akira started reading a book secretly behind his things and Kawakami-San seemed to take no notice of it. Today was a normal day though, Niijima-San wasn't following us through the halls, the other students only glanced our way before they continued with their day, and Ms. Chouno's class was as annoying as ever.

"It's June now, huh... Personally, this is my least favorite month." She started off with, "It takes an hour to do my hair due to the humidity, and it's a bother deciding what to wear when it rains."

'And somehow I only take 30 minutes at most not our fault you can't make up your mind...' I thought to myself as I watched Morgana's tail flick back and forth out of the corner of my eye.

"But for you, June is a month with no holidays and no events." She continued, "Now that I think about it, you'll be switching to the summer uniforms next week. I don't want everyone forgetting, Ok? Don't charge out the door in your blazers."

'Hmm... Who does that sound like...?' I immediately pictured Ryuji waking amongst the other students still wearing his winter uniform while the others were dressed in the summer uniforms.

"On that note, Ms. Kaida." Ms. Chouno called for me and I straightened slightly in my chair, "The original blazers were named that thanks to a certain quality they had. Any idea what it was?"

"They were brightly colored." I answered in monotone with a straight face.

"Excellent!" She praised, "Our blazers are black, of course, but the original ones were a bright, vivid red. It was mostly used to refer to the jackets worn by a British boating club in the 1800s."

The students whispered amongst themselves about my correct answer.

'It's not that big a deal, I just remembered it from something my cousin told me once...' I thought as I shifted my gaze to look out the window with a sigh.

"Somewhere along the line, I suppose the style was lost with the name's original meaning. After all, just look at us. Nowadays, blazers don't have to have any color at all..." Ms. Chouno finished.

"Not that that's a bad thing. I think black is pretty stylish..." I heard Morgana tell Akira before Ms. Chouno changed the subject to something else. By the end of school it had started to rain and later in the day Ann started up a group chat.

Ann:'The exhibition ends tomorrow... Madarame must have had his change of heart by now, right?'

Ryuji:'I'm sure it'll be fine. So far nobody's come charging us with anything, yeah?'

Ann:'But wouldn't he wait to press charges until AFTER the exhibition? What should we do if someone contacts us about it tomorrow...?'

Ryuji:'Try asking Yusuke. He's still starting with Madarame, right?'

Ann:'Oh, that's right... Where is Yusuke? I wonder if he'll be OK with Madarame...'

Yusuke:'Sorry I'm late to contact you all. It seems something will certainly be happening tomorrow. Madarame is on the phone as we speak.'

Akira:'With who?'

Yusuke:'Likely the media. I haven't heard anything in this conversation about pressing charges.'

Ryuji:'Guess we just gotta wait then.'

Kiku:'That would be the best thing to do for the moment. Until we see exactly what's going on it's hard to take action after all...'

Yusuke:'Let us meet in Shibuya tomorrow.'

Ann:'OK! See you then!'

6/5

Akira and I waited for the other members of the Kodokuna ōkami at our current hideout where we could easily see the giant TV screen that was at the top of one of the larger building. We waited until a conference featuring Madarame appeared on the screen.

"I... I have committed crimes that are unbecoming of an artist. Plainly put... I, um... plagerized work... I-I... tainted this... this country's art world... and... even "Sayuri"...!" Madarame told to the cameras and spoke into several microphones that surrounded him, "...H-How could I... I possibly... apologize to-to everyone for... for what I've done... Aaaah...!"

"...And that was from the urgent apology conference by Madarame that took place just moments ago. After reporting to the association, Madarame has agreed to the police's request to turn himself in." A newscaster told the viewers, "On top of charges of abuse to his pupils, Madarame is under suspicion of claiming their works as his own. Some doubt the validity that his maiden work "Sayuri" was stolen, believing it was used for fraud. This large-scale criminal act has caused a great shock to the art world, and... After the conference, Madarame was taken to a police hospital for interrogation due to his age. However, initial psych evaluations state that he is mentally sound and likely responsible for his actions."

The people below seemed to be irritated and upset by the news on the TV.

"Also, a group calling themselves the Phantom Thieves posted a dubious note at Madarame's exhibit. The police will investigate their relation to this case, but for now, did not identify them as suspects." The newscaster finished before moving on to something else. Not long after that the others gathered around our meeting spot.

"You guys see the news about Madarame!? It's just like what happened with Kamoshida!" Ryuji said excitedly.

"And they mentioned the Phantom Thieves!" Ann added.

"Man, this is startin' to get interesting... If we do it right, we can change people's hearts. With this power... we might be able to do more than just gettin' back at society, it'll be a big deal!"

"You are way too excited about this." I told the bleached blond boy.

"Oh come on you agree, right Akira?" Ryuji asked our leader.

"I don't know..." Akira replied indifferently.

"Man, you're so indifferent." Ryuji sighed out.

"Then again, doesn't that make him more trustworthy as our leader?" Ann pointed out.

"As for me, I hope we just keep gettin' more and more famous!" Ryuji declared.

"Something like this happening twice is massive too. It's too great a coincidence to occur naturally." Morgana added his two yen.

"If we continue doing this, we'll definitely be able to give courage to everyone who needs it." Ann cheered.

"...We may want to quiet down a little." Yusuke pointed out when he spotted some officers walking close by.

"Do you know them?" Ann asked confused.

"You moron! Those're attendance officers!" Ryuji whisper yells. Then the two come over and start to talk to us.

"Hello there. May I speak with you for a moment?" The officer in sunglasses asked.

"Ah, yes! How can we help you?" Ann asked fakely.

"That monotonous acting of hers never fails to send a chill down my spine." Morgana stated.

"What are you all doing here? Are you friends?" The officer asked.

'I doubt we would be hanging out together if we weren't friends...' I crossed my arms and leaned back on the railing behind me.

"We wanted some tea..." Akira quickly lied.

"Hm, is that so? And how would you so that in a place like this? The other officer questioned.

"We were just discussing where we should go..." Ann answered with her idea of acting.

"Well, all right. Just make sure you disperse before it gets to late, OK? There have been some odd happenings lately, and the news about that artist has caused quite the stir." The first officer told us.

"We'll be careful!" Ann assured him.

"It's still light out... Man, those guys must have way to much time on their hands." Ryuji muttered after the two left.

"Hey, don't go making stuff up on the spot like that, OK...!? I totally panicked 'cause of you!" Ann scolded Akira quietly.

"Tea was the best you could come up with?" I asked him, slightly amused at the lie, and Akira just shrugged.

"...From now on, we'll need to be even more cautious than before." Morgana decided, "Look at us! Right after the second Thieves incident, both prior victims are meeting up."

"Wait, you mean people might be listening to us...?" Ann asked looking worried.

"Eh, it'll be fine. Look around. We're the only people worryin' about it." Ryuji told her.

"I guess you're right..." Ann finally decided.

"By the way, Yusuke... You able to get anything out of Madarame? Remember how he was talkin' about that suspicious person in the black mask?" Ryuji directed at Yusuke.

"Well... I pressed him for answers, but he doesn't even understand what happened to him to begin with." Yusuke explained to us.

"It's not like he actually saw his desires get stolen after all." Ann added.

"It's rumored that he may be sent to prison, in that case, gaining information will be difficult..." Yusuke continued.

"I don't really think we can get anything out of him anyways. The only one who know what he was talking about was the shadow Madarame...and without his Palace we won't be able to speak with him." I speculated.

"So, what're you gonna do now?" Ryuji addressed Yusuke effectively changing the subject.

"I'll be leaving that house. I can't draw in such a place anymore." Yusuke explained.

"Do you have somewhere to go?" Ann worried.

"The school dorms. I can stay there free of charge thanks to my fine-arts scholarship." Yusuke stated.

"A scholarship!? Wait, you're that good...?" Ryuji exclaimed.

"Although, Takamaki-San's house would do as well." Yusuke added.

"...Wait, WHAT!?" Ann yelled.

"You know, you could ask her to model for you when ever you wanted!" Ryuji jokes.

"You moron!" Ann yelled again.

"Then again, now that Yusuke'll be livin' alone, it'll be easier for us to meet up whenever we want." Ryuji realized.

"For the time being, we should wait and see how this case plays out." Yusuke pointed out.

"And it'll prolly take some time findin' a target as big as Madarame." Ryuji muttered.

"Anyways, we should just act like normal students while we look for our next target, OK?" Ann proposed.

"We'll be leaving that to you again, Ryuji." Morgana informed the blond boy.

"All right. Guess it's just more prep 'till then." He resolved. We all gathered our things and walked away from our meeting spot. Just as Akira and I were about to follow behind the others we spotted someone out of our peripheral vision, Makoto Niijima. We watched as she mumbled something to herself before she walked in the opposite direction we were heading. I looked over to Akira and we shared a look before walking away.

6/6

When I woke up I grabbed my phone and decided to check the Phan-site to check the ratings on if the Phantom Thieves exist.

"16.6% not bad for only two big heists..." I mumbled and started to get ready for school, switching to the summer uniform as I changed, and made my way to where I always meet up with Akira in the morning. We took the first train to Shibuya then waited for the next train to arrive to take us to Aoyama-Itchome station. While we waited Ryuji walked over... in his winter uniform, I had to stifle a giggle as he started talking.

"Morniin'." He greeted, "The response to Madarame's press conference was huge! Everyone's talkin' about the calling card. Girls are checkin' me out today... Maybe they can't help but sense my overflowin' phantom thief charisma?"

"Pht..." I tried to hold in my laughter, Ryuji didn't seem to notice.

"Oh shit, am I finally startin' to be popular with all the fly hon-...Oh no!" Ryuji finally realised something was off.

"Something's strange..." Akira pointed out with a smirk he tried to hide.

"Of course there is! My uniform, man! My uniform! We're s'posed to switch to summer uniforms today!" Ryuji screamed, "I know people were lookin' at me... Oh goddammit! I gotta go home and change, so you go on ahead!"

"Hehe..." I finally let out a quiet laugh as Ryuji sped off to change his clothes. Akira just smirked as the train came into the station. We shared a smile as we boarded and talked as we rode the train to Aoyama-Itchome station. Once we were there we walked towards the school and ended up walking behind two other Shujin students who were talking.

"Holy shit you're pale! Short sleeves are so not for you!" The first student told his friend.

"Shut up! Geez... Anyway, did you catch the news yesterday?" The pale student asked his hyper friend, "Watching that famous artist cry his eyes out over all the artwork he's stolen... The same thing happened to Kamoshida, right? Both got weird calling cards, too... If you ask me, the same person is behind all this."

"The news this morning said a group called Kodokuna ōkami are the ones behind the cards. I wonder how they get people to confess. I mean, they can't literally be "stealing hearts." ...Blackmail, maybe?" The hyper student hypothesised. They continued to talk all the way to school and Akira and I had to get to our class. At lunch time Ryuji stopped off at our classroom the three of us talk a little while Ryuji leaned on my desk, the rain outside made a pleasant background noise. As we waited around we heard one of the kids in our class talk to another.

"Did you see Madarame's press conference?" One of the students asked the other excitedly.

"You mean that guy who was all like, "How could I possibly... apologize for what I've done... Aaaah..."?" The second student impersonated Madarame.

"Think it was really those phantom thieves? You know, the whole stealing your heart thing." The excited student asked the other.

"That... There's no way. But then again... it seems to convenient for it all to just be coincidence." The suave student responded. Ryuji fisted the air in celebration just before Ann walked over to us.

"How's it going? Have you found our next big target?" Ann questioned.

"I just started lookin' yesterday. No way I'm gonna find one that quick." Ryuji complained.

"Oh yeah, I guess that's true. By the way, I decided on the TV station. What about you three?" Ann suddenly asked causing us all to be confused.

"Huh...?" Ryuji pondered then jumped in realization, "Oh carp, the social studies trip! Ugh, I just wanna ditch it..."

"You'd better go to your school activities. Didn't I tell you not to draw attention to yourselves?" Morgana warned.

"Wouldn't me suddenly turnin' into a good student stand out more?" Ryuji tried to justify.

"Quit bickering and go." Morgana ordered.

"Then let's all choose the TV station! I heard we're gonna get to watch them tape a show! Maybe there'll be actresses there!" Ann exclaimed and this sparked something in Ryuji...go figure that the prospect of actresses would get him to comply...

"Oh well. Not like I got anything better to do than waitin' for info to come in online. Plus, Morgana's right. Showin' up'll keep the teachers from gettin' all suspicious of me." Ryuji decided before bidding us goodbye before heading back to his class, mumbling something about a haircut. After that we started up lessons for the afternoon when Ryuji texted the group.

Ryuji:'Feels pretty great having everyone talk about us, huh?'

Yusuke:'Madarame is the only topic of conversation at my school. And as I'm his pupil, most of my peers have chosen to ignore me.'

Ryuji:'For real? That's bullshit.'

Ann:'Are you going to be OK?'

Yusuke:'There is no need to worry. They had already been treating me differently from others as it stood. This is nothing new to me.'

Ann:'OK then...'

Yusuke:'More importantly, do we have any leads on our next mission?'

Ryuji:'You kidding? There's no way we'd find a target that quick!'

Kiku:'Mementos?'

Akira:'It'll be good training for the next Palace.'

Ann:'Great idea!'

Yusuke:'I will keep myself free. Please tell me if anything comes up.'

The rest of the school day went by quickly amd once classes ended Akira got a message from Mishima about a Mementos target, Hikari Shimizu, and we also had one for a bully named Yoshimori Sakoda so we had plenty to help get Yusuke used to Mementos. Akira and I headed out of the classroom when I got the feeling of being watched.

"Akira..." I whispered to get his attention, he looked over to me and I motioned my head behind us. When he looked back Niijima-San was following behind us with a large book open to try, and fail, at covering her face to not look suspicious.

"Just ignore her... But I don't think now is the time to go to you know where..." Akira whispered back to me. I nodded my head and we made our way out of the building, we headed to Shibuya and the underground mall. Spending some time browsing the shops as I could feel Niijima-San still following us around from a distance behind before we decided to head to Yongen-jaya where we split up, promising to meet up tomorrow as usual. When I got home I made my way to the desk inside my room, my parents not being home due to work and social gatherings. I worked on my homework before putting it aside and pulling out a pad of paper. I started to list all the people I knew that had the tarot cards above their heads and which card it was, so far my list was:

1\. Akira Kurusu-The Fool

2.Morgana-The Magician

3.Sojiro Sakura-The Hierophant

4.Ann Takamaki-The Lovers

5.Ryuji Sakamoto-The Chariot

6.Sadayo Kawakami-The Temperance

7.Yuuki Mishima-The Moon

As I thought about it each card seemed to correspond with each person's personality or lifestyle. The Fool representing innocence, divine inspiration, madness, freedom, spontaneity, inexperience, chaos, and creativity. Chaos seemed to be ever present in Akira's life and though he is inexperienced in many areas he still seems to find a solution for all the things that come his way. The Fool also represents beginnings and Akira's arrival had brought plenty on beginnings for many people, myself included. The Magician represents Action, initiative, self-confidence, immaturity, manipulation and power all of which represent Morgana well. The same is said of the others, each card represents something that seems to correspond with the person I see it with. I still don't know why I see these cards or what their purpose is but at least I know a little more than I did before...

Chime*

"Hm?" I hummed as I pulled put my phone and saw a message in the Phantom chat room.

Ann:'You haven't heard anything from the student council president, have you?'

Ryuji:'Miss Honor Student must be kissing ass somewhere.'

Ann:'You don't have to be so harsh...'

Yusuke:'What is this about a student council president?'

Ann:'The one at our school has kinda been keeping tabs on us. I think she's suspicious of us.'

Kiku:'It's really creepy when she follows me and Akira around with that big book of hers...'

Yusuke:'Are you sure it is not merely a result of Ryuji's general misconduct?'

Ryuji:'Shuddup!'

Yusuke:'Though to be honest, the four of you most certainly stand out. Do try to be careful. I cannot be there to look over you at school, you know. That duty rest on your broad shoulders, Akira.'

Akira:'Got it.'

Ann:'I'll make sure to keep an eye on Ryuji too.'

Kiku:'We'll take care of it.'

Ryuji:'Why do you gotta single me out...?'

"Because it's so easy..." I laughed then realized how late it was getting, I made myself dinner then got ready to turn in for the night, "Another day...hopefully Niijima-San doesn't follow us around again tomorrow."

 **And there you have it, Chapter 13. Again Happy Halloween! See you next chapter.**

 **Shika Kizuka**


	14. The TV Station: Day 1

**Welcome back to all readers who habe been following this story or welcome to those of you who are new. Thank you for deciding to read my story. I'd like to take a second to address a comment I recived shortly after my last post. To the guest who wrote about how I was glossing over important things, first off, I belive that that is my decision as the writer if I feel like those points are important as I would think that everyone here has played the game and knows about the story line already. As this is not a truely original story, but a fanfiction, I think it is my choice. If you dislike the way I write my story then all I can really tell you is to deal with it or stop reading. I am not a proffesional writer or anything of the sort, in fact I almost failed English in high school far to many times for me to feel comfortable. I write for my own enjoyment and your enjoyment is just a wonderful bonus(no offence to my readers). Secondly, my grandfather has passed away only a few months ago a few weeks before I posted my last chapter, I didn't tell anyone on here because I have been doing my best to not think about it. It hurts to know someone I've know since I was born is no longer of this world, but I know that it was his time to go and I'm slightly glad because it means he won't be in anymore pain. He's been in pain for so long that I think he finally deserves to rest in peace, even if that peace means he's no longer with us. And, that's why the last chapter, this chapter, and probably many after it will probably really suck... On a happier note, as I don't like to dwell on depressing thoughts, you'll all find out who Kiku's cousin is this chapter! Enjoy or don't, that's your choice.**

"The TV Station: Day 1"

6/7

Akira and I were on the train, packed in like sardines, when the train monitors mentioned the calling card at Madarame's exhibit and scam outbreaks in Shibuya.

"Students getting scammed? That's scary... You should be careful when you go to Shibuya." Morgana advised us.

"Mm... I've been hearing rumors about it for a little while now. Hopefully someone can do something about it before something really bad happens..." I agree then the train pulled into the station and We got off. When we walked into the school there were several students crowded around one of the announcement boards.

"...What's this? "A request to the student body"...?" A female students pondered.

"It says they're looking for information. I heard Principal Kobayakawa put it up." Another girl told the first.

"Please consult the student council president if you have any details." The first girl read off the paper.

"So we can go to her for anything? Why the student council president though? What does she have to do with Principal Kobayakawa?" A male student questioned.

"I mean, Niijima-San is his favorite. Maybe that's why he asked her to do it." The second girl student speculated to the other two students. Akira and I shared a look before we headed to class. Other than Akira being called out in class and Ryuji starting a chat during class nothing really not worthy hapened.

"Kiku!" Akira called for me as I gather my things.

"Hm?" I looked up to him.

"Accessway..." He said simply, I nodded and we headed off to our current hideout.

6/7, After School, Accessway...

"Is that really your summer uniform?" I asked Yusuke after he arrived at the hideout.

"It is. Is there something wrong with it?" Yusuke replied.

"No, just... I didn't think it would be purple..." I mumbled, confused on how a school would choose purple as a uniform color. Don't get me wrong... it suites him, I just can't understand why they would choose purple as a uniform shirt color... Anyways, Akira then called for a meeting to discuss our targets for this trip as well as a few other things.

"Hasn't the Madarame incident started to get the public a little more excited?" Morgana inquired, "We're definitely going to gain more support if we keep it up!"

"We should refrain from drawing more attention to us for now. Our identities cannot be discovered." Yusuke reminded us, "Now then, let us wait and see what happens before we begin searching for our next target."

"There's no point killin' time here. Wanna spend time in Mementos? Oh, and do we have any info on peeps in trouble? Lets try talkin' about it if we do." Ryuji pointed out. We quickly sorted through the two requests we currently have before we agreed to head into Mementos.

6/7, After School, Mementos...

Upon entering Mementos, the Meta-Nav updated the map of Mementos. Unfortunately Mona didn't know much about how Mementos' expantion worked but he does his best with what he remembers. We made our way down to where the first target, Yoshimori Sakoda, was hiding and made quick work of his shadow before working our way down to where Hikari Shimizu's shadow was waiting in front of the wall that blocked off the next area. Continuing until we got to the farthest floor we could go we once again ran into one of those walls that were impenetrable.

"Hm? Is it not opening?" Fox questioned.

"I guess we'll need to get more of the public to accept us..." Mona noted.

"So that means we're still not so popular, huh...?" Skull sighed.

"Oh... Is that a suprise?" Panther asked.

"Yes, perhaps somewhat..." Fox answered.

"She was askin' me!" Skull told Fox.

"Does it really matter? We should head back since we can't move any further." I stated.

"Lets go." Joker nodded and we headed back to the real world for the time being.

6/8, Evening...

Ryuji:'You know how we're going to that TV station tomorrow, yeah? I'm thinking we might find our next target there.'

Ann:'Oh, that's right! You always hear about how celebrities are involved in all sorts of shady business.'

Akira:'You're absolutely right.'

Ryuji:'With that much money they've prolly got their fingers in all sorts of dirty business.'

Yusuke:'Hm... That phrasing has quite the immoral ring to it...'

Ryuji:'Dude, you always react to the weirdest stuff...'

Kiku:'For once I have to agree with Ryuji on that. But you guys know that not all celebrities are like that, right...?'

Ryuji:'You know a celebrity?'

Kiku:'My cousin knows one. He went to school with her about 5 years ago or so. They're friends actually...'

Ann:'Really?! That's so cool!'

Ryuji:'It's a girl?'

Kiku:'Yeah. I might get to see her over the summer if the old man can get all his friends together.'

Yusuke:'Old man?'

Kiku:'My cousin has silver hair so I called him old man as a joke once before it just kinda stuck...'

Ann:'Anyway, we get to observe a live recording of a show, right?'

Ryuji:'Ooh, maybe we're gonna be on TV!'

Ann:'We'll just be in the crowd, remember? Any TV appearance would just be like, two seconds.'

Yusuke:'Hm. Try not to pull any fanciful stunts to garner attention, OK?'

Kiku:'We'll keep an eye on him.'

6/9

The trip to the TV station was normal as we all talked about random things. Once we all made it to the station and we're all accounted for we were shown around by a PR woman that I didn't bother to remember her name.

"...And that's why we recruit sponsors to help make TV shows. I'm sure you know about commercial breaks? Well, those are actually sponsor-related product placements." The woman was explaining while I just looked around at the set We were standing near, "To sum things up, ratings are vitally important for a station's production funding, and..."

"Huh..." Ryuji hummed in suprise as if this was new information.

"So sleepy..." Akira mumbled and I had to agree that this was snooze worthy.

"He ain't even listenin'..." Ryuji muttered.

"I'm not really either..." I told him with a held back yawn. The woman continued to tell us about different parts of the TV station as other people worked on the set behind her.

"For example, soap-opera reruns are shown during the day, whereas alluring newswomen are broadcast at night. Thus, the scheduling department is where we decide what time we broadcast which program. I suppose you could say it's the place where the scheduling is determined." The woman told the crowd of students.

"Could this get anymore obvious...?" Ann questioned quietly.

"And she repeated what she just said, only in a different way...like we didn't get it the first time?" I added, rather irritated from the repetition.

"You're right." Akira agreed with us.

"*yawn* So sleepy..." Ann let off a small yawn as the woman talked about editing footage.

"Hey, how much longer does this go?" Morgana whispered.

"I swear, I'm not gonna last..." And now even Ryuji's yawning. Then some guy pushed past Akira aggressively, knocking into the bag Morgana was kept in.

"What's going on? I can't stand all this noise." The man demanded, Ryuji went to confront the man but was interupted by the PR woman.

"My apologies! I'll have them leave right away!" The woman told the man quickly before calling to all the students, "Now then, it's time for a bit of hands on experience!"

"Dammit... Who does that jerk think he is?" Ryuji demanded Then some guy came up to Ann and I with a lustful grin.

"Hey there, you wanna be on TV?" The guy asked us.

"Huh?" Ann questioned with confusion.

"You've both got slammin' bods, after all. Hehehe..." The guy laughed creepily.

"Uh... We're on a school trip..." Ann told him wearily.

"Just gimme a call if you're interested. I'd greatly welcome a message from you, day or night." The guy told us handing us both a card with what I assumed must be his number.

"Ahhh, yeah..." Ann mumbled I heard Ryuji muttering something to the other boys but ignored in favor of getting rid of the creepy guy.

"Yeah, I don't think my parents would appreciate me being on TV like that..." I told him matter of factly.

"Oh, what are their names? I'm sure if I talk to them they'll let you do it." The guy tried to persuade me.

"I doubt it, Hayato and Fuyuko Kaida aren't the kind of parents to be persuaded by the likes of you." I smirked, normally I wouldn't use my family name but this guy was really being a creep.

"Kaida...!" The man paled then decided to pick on the boys, "Well then, uhhh... Lets have you see what it's like to be an AC. Oh, that stands for "assistant camera." When we're moving the cameras, we need people who'll get the cables from getting tangled up... The blond will do. He seems like he's go energy to spare anyway. Guy next to him, you can come too if you're felling lonely. C'mon, hurry up and grab the cables!"

"Dammit... This sucks!" Ryuji complained. We had to split up for a bit while the boys fought with the cables and we were herded away to do other things. When we did finally meet back up it was outside of one of the male restrooms that Ryuji had been in.

"This is bullshit! Goin' to the bathroom didn't even make me feel better!" Ann and I heard Ryuji yell.

"Quiet down, will you?" Ann scolded as we walked around the corner, "I get how you feel though... That sucked for the both of us."

"Make that the three of us." I corrected her.

"We gotta do more of this tomorrow too...?" Ryuji sighed, looking at the floor distressed.

"No flaking out, Ryuji." Morgana instructed.

"I know, I know. I gotta be a "good boy," right?" Ryuji snapped back, "Bein' phantom thieves ain't easy..."

"That reminds me, We get to go home straight from here today. We don't spend much time in this area, so why don't we relax and check out some shops beforehand?" Ann suggested.

"Ooh, I know a place! I wanna go to that huge pancake-looking place we passed on the way here!" Morgana cried excitedly, "It looked delicious! What was that?"

"Ohhh... You mean Dome Town?" Ryuji realized, "The round part is a baseball stadium, then along the outside they've got an amusement park."

"It's right in the middle of a business area, but they have some pretty hardcore rides there too." Ann threw in.

"All right... Let's go! I'll show you how courageous I am!" Declared Morgana.

"Going on a scary ride doesn't really prove any kind of courage." Ann rejoined.

"Not like cats can get on anyways." Ryuji continued.

"Really...?" Inquired Morgana curiously.

"Really. You might be able to sneak in if you stay in the bag, but you'd totally puke if you did that." Ryuji responded to the cat, "But uh... Let's just go to Dome Town! I'm really feelin' it now!"

"Me too! My stomach's ready for roller coasters!" Ann perked up with a cheer.

"Uhhh... I think I'll pass on the puke rides..." Morgana quickly declared, after that a boy, dressed in a light brown suit that I think was his school uniform from the emblem on his jacket, walked past the corridor we were standing in.

"Excuse me, I couldn't help but notice your uniforms." The pleasant looking boy addressed us, "Are you students from Shuji Academy?"

"Yeah, whaddya want?" Ryuji asked rudely.

"I happen to be passing by, so it seemed polite to greet you. We'll be filming together, after all." The boy clarified, "Ah, where are my manners? My name is Goro Akechi."

"Akechi...?" Ann murmured in thought.

"Filming? What, you a celebrity?" Ryuji queried.

"Only to the extent of appearing on TV a couple of times." Was the boy's reply.

"Oh...!" Ann seemed to realise something at that statement. Akechi-San pulled out his phone, checking something, before putting it back into his pocket.

"My apologies, I truly was just passing by. I must be going. There's a briefing for tomorrow's recording that I have to attend." Akechi-San explained to us sadly, "So, you're going to have cake now? I missed lunch today, so I'm quite hungry myself..."

We all looked at him confused at his words.

"Huh? Cake...? What're you talkin' about?" Ryuji was the one to speak up.

"Oh, am I mistaken? I thought I heard something about pancakes..." Akechi-San noted, "No matter. Welp, see you tomorrow."

He walked away with a pleasant smile on his face.

"Hmm..." I watched the spot where he disappeared from view in thought.

"That guy's gotta be some kinda start-up entertainer or something. He's never gonna be popular with that kinda hair thought." Ryuji said, interupted my thoughts.

"You don't get it..." Ann muttered.

"Eh, it's fine. We'll see him tomorrow anyways. C'mon, let's go to Dome Town!" Ryuji replied before we all made to leave.

"H-Hey, can we skip the vomit machines and get cake instead?" Morgana pleaded as we walked off.

6/9, After School, Suidobashi's Dome Town...

When we got to the amusement park Ryuji and Ann immediately wanted to get in line for a rollor coaster.

"Let's go!" Ann cried excitedly.

"Alright!" Ryuji joined.

"You guys go ahead, I'll stay on the ground thanks..." I told them.

"Huh? C'mon, have a little fun while you're here." Ryuji insisted.

"I will...from the ground." I looked at my shoes.

"But it'll be more fun if you go with us!" Ann told me with an excited grin.

"No thanks..." I mumbled.

"Kiku, are you afraid of rollor coasters?" Akira asked quietly from my left.

"No..." I answered truthfully.

"Then why don't you wanna get on a ride with us?" Ryuji inquired.

"'Cause I don't like heights..." I answered.

"Oh...!" Came the simultaneous replies.

"You guys go on your rollor coaster and I'll just stay here." I maintained.

"I'll stay with you, Lady Kin!" Morgana exclaimed quickly.

"Sure, why not..." I shrugged, Akira nodded. We found a bench close to the ride that the others decided to go on and everyone left their bags with me while they went on the ride.

 _'Raise your voice against liars_

 _Feed your anger like fire_

 _Why does nobody want change?'_

I heard my phone's ringtone go off from my bag. Digging it out I opened my phone and answered.

Kiku:"Hello?"

Old Man:"Hey it's me!"

Kiku:"Yu! What's up?"

Yu:"Just wanted to check up on you."

Kiku:"I see. Well everything's fine on my end. How about you?"

Yu:"Everything's good. I finished talking to everyone and we made plans to stay a week or two out near Shibuya."

Kiku:"Really, that's great!"

Yu:"Yeah, it'll be a good break for all of us."

Kiku:"I'm sure, after all everyone must be really busy with their jobs."

Yu:"No kidding, Rise jumped at the idea of a Vacation from work."

Kiku:"Hehe, I'm sure with all those fans and producers hounding her every two seconds."

Yu:"Right. Well I just wanted to check on you and tell you about the plan for this summer."

Kiku:"M'kay, don't work yourself too hard."

Yu:"I won't. Talk to you soon, Kiku."

Kiku:"Talk to you soon."

I finally hung up the phone with a small calm smile.

"Who was that?" Morgana asked.

"My cousin, he's getting his friends together this summer to come to Shibuya. They're all pretty busy people what with one of them being insanely popular, one being a detective, and the others all doing their respective jobs." I explained.

"I see. I wonder what they're all like?" Morgana pondered.

"You'll have to wait and see. Oh, the others are coming back now." I said and stood up, everyone grabbed their bags and Ryuji looked kinda green.

"I feel like I'm gonna puke... For real, my stomach's churnin'..." The bleach blond complained.

"This is why I spoke against it." Morgana reminded.

"Dude... It's not fair... Usin' your cathood as an excuse...only at times like this..." Ryuji mumbles.

"Anyways, are you guys feeling hungry? How about some pancakes?" Ann butted in.

"Let's go home. We have another full day ahead of us tomorrow." Morgana decided. So we all head to the trainstation and make our way to our respective stops.

 **And there we go, Yu from P4 is her cousin! To the guest who guest that all the way back when I first introduced him to the story, well done on you guess. To the one who guest he was a persona user...well tecknically you were right as well so congrats to you too. I don't have much else to say other than thanks for reading another chapter and I hope you enjoyed it, if not then thats too bad but no use crying over it... Bye, see you next chapter!**

 **Shika Kizuka**


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